Shropshire Council shares best practice
Shropshire Council hosted a visit from Somerset County Council last month (Wednesday 14 January 2015) to share its experiences of the successful redesign of its adult social care service.
Shropshire Council is working with ip&e Limited to redesign the way it does things, and adult social care is at the forefront of this new way of working.
Stephen Chandler, Shropshire Council’s director of adult services, talked officers from Somerset through the workings of the council’s new operating model, and how it is helping some of the county’s most vulnerable people to get help sooner and support them to be more independent within their own community.
A key part of the delivery of this model has included improving the way the council’s customer service centre operators (known as ‘First Point of Contact’) deal with people’s initial enquiry.
The operators have been trained to be able to do a basic assessment over the phone straightaway. People are then supported according to their needs, whether this be an invite to a Let’s Talk Local session, a visit from a social worker, or signposted to another organisation who can arrange the right type of care.
Some of the officers from Somerset also took the opportunity to visit the council’s partner People2People. People2People is a not-for-profit independent social work practice which provides adult social care support to older people and those with disabilities living anywhere in the county.
Initially set up as a pilot in Shrewsbury, before being expanded to cover the whole county, People2People has already received national recognition for its work. People can read more about this here.
Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult services – transformation and safeguarding, said:
“We were delighted to welcome to Shropshire the key people within adult social care at Somerset County Council.
“There is no getting away from the fact that, as a result of financial pressures, we, alongside other councils, face lots of challenges over the coming months and years. We particularly feel this in adult social care, as our county’s population gets older and the demand for our services increases.
“Despite this, we are very proud of what we, alongside ip&e, have achieved so far, and recognise the value in sharing our achievements and learning along the way.
“We’ve had lots of great feedback. However, we’re not complacent – the way we deliver our service is constantly evolving to suit the needs of our residents and, just as importantly, to ensure that it is sustainable in the future.
“The day went extremely well and we’re sure they have taken lots on board. Some of their questions and ideas have also given us food for thought on how we might further improve on what have.”
The business design arm of ip&e limited, the council-owned company, worked closely with adult social care to create the environment for this change to happen.
The design team’s approach is about building sustainable solutions using a combination of systems and design thinking. They have staff trained in delivering this in a way that helps frontline staff to understand their service from a customer perspective.
Through working in partnership with frontline adult social care staff, the team were able to support them to understand more about their service and customers through using customer journey mapping techniques, in-depth interviews with customers and service process mapping. This was about helping frontline workers to discover how their service fits into the wider picture.
Amy Clode, ip&e Business Design consultant, said:
“We’re really pleased with what we’ve helped the service to achieve. Radically changing how the service is delivered is not easy, but we’ve come away with a new operating model which is really working.
“We meet staff to understand how they work and engage them with a combination of empathy and fun, understanding that success of any new model requires staff to own the design of it.”
Carol Ford, from People2People, added:
“I can honestly say ip&e Business Design were the people that really made us think differently. Without the support we received we couldn’t have got to where we did. They were fantastic in encouraging and supporting us through the whole process.”
Working in this way means that the council is well prepared for the Care Act, which comes into effect on 1 April 2015.
An honest account of the council’s work over the last year, through the eyes of its customers, their carers, staff and partners can be found in its most recent local account.
ip&e Limited provides public services on the council’s behalf and enables the council to reinvest profit from any trading back into services. Find out more about it and how it may be able to help your business here: http://www.ipande.co.uk/.
