‘Making it real’ for people receiving care and support

People receiving care and support from Shropshire Council are being urged to share their views as part of ongoing work to develop and improve services.

Work is taking place to give people more choice and control over how they are supported, and ensure it is personalised to their needs and interests.

Shropshire Council has signed up to Making it Real (MiR) to help make sure it is improving adult social care services in this way.

The MiR survey is being run for people to tell the council more about their experiences of social care, and how well it is supporting them to live their lives in the way they want.

Social care is the range of services and support available for vulnerable people to help them lead independent lives in their own communities. These range from providing a first point of contact over the phone for anyone who feels they need some support to helping people to arrange assistance with personal care, so they can keep living in their own home.

Any council or other organisation that provides social care services can sign up to MiR to show their commitment to offering services shaped around each individual.

The survey is based on the MiR checklist which has been developed by people using services and their carers, supported by more than 30 national social care organisations. The checklist is a list of statements which outline what people expect if services are personalised.

There are two versions of the survey – one for people receiving services and one for carers.

To complete the survey, which should only take about 20 to 30 minutes, go to www.shropshire.gov.uk/adult-social-care/personalisation

Focus groups have also been taking place and people can take part in this work to improve services by joining the MiR planning group which will be made up of people who use adult social care services, family carers, social work team staff and senior representatives from Shropshire Council.

Regular updates on Making it Real, and the wide variety of work taking place across adult services in Shropshire, are being placed on the council’s Live Life Your Way Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shropshirelivelifeyourway

Councillor Tim Barker, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult services, said:

“We want social care to give people as many opportunities as possible to live in the way they want and are working to ensure they give people more choice and control over how they are supported.

“People have told us they want a wide range of support that is personalised to their needs and enables them to remain independent and active members of their communities for as long as possible.

“We have signed up to Making it Real to show our commitment to ensuring services are helping people in this way. This builds on previous work which has included the development of the Adult Social Care Strategy following extensive consultation.

“We are inviting people to take part in the survey to see if we are achieving what we want to achieve for people receiving services and carers.

“We will continue to work with them, using the MiR checklist, to see how we are doing, develop an action plan for making services better, which will be shared with the public, and check our progress.”

To find out more about the survey and the planning group contact Jackie Taylor on 01743 253796 or Charlotte Cadwallader on 01743 253798.

To find out more about MiR and the organisations nationally that have signed up, go to the national website, www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk