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Flu Pandemic - Guidance from UKHCA

The UKHCA has published some really useful guidance about the potential H1N1 Swine flu pandemic.

You can find this at http://www.ukhca.co.uk/flu/

You can also find the Department of Health guidance for the public and up to the minute information at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Flu/Swineflu/index.htm

Add comment May 4th, 2009

Our Meeting of the 5th May 2009

Hello all here is an agenda for our meeting of the 5th May 2009 Agenda 5th May 2009.

Our meeting is at the Cartrefi Cardiff office a video link is available at the Llandrindod Wells and Bangor Cartrefi offices.

Add comment May 4th, 2009

Notes from our update meeting 8th April 2008

Present: Judith North, Barry Gallagher, Rick Wilson, Mandy Evans

Matters arising from the last meeting 

• People First Leadership Programme - Rick reported that CLC is in discussion about running a PF leadership course for people locally in partnership with AWPF and Swansea PF.
  This led to a discussion of the peer led training that could offer staff a more collaborative understanding of their work with service users.
• Blog Moderator Support Meetings - The first meeting has taken place, Rick is organising these on a bi-monthly basis.
• Terms of Reference - These on the basis of feedback are approved.

Key Theme Activities

1. Developing Legislation and Case Law - We had a discussion about current concerns about the Sleepins and the National Minimum Wage and the Working Time Directive. Strategies being employed by group members:
   *Exploration of sharing the cost of sleepins across average pay - Cartefi and Reach
   *Discussions with Commissioners about responses to these concerns - OHT
   * Developing alternative models of community based night-time support - CLC and Drive.
   We agreed to share on the blog updates about this work as it develops.
2. Best Practice in Care and Support  - We discussed the possiblity of organising an event about the issues raised by Private Hospitals, we agreed that was a priority but felt we should consider the impact of Circular 1/91 regarding this issue first.
3. Best Practice in Housing Management - Updates included:
   * Assisted Homebuy - Out of the 3 pilot participants 1 has now moved in, the other 2 will move in shortly. Coastal Housing Association and FCHA has gained approval from WAG for a second phase Assisted Homebuy SHMG bid to look at a no grant Assisted Homebuy model.
   * Turnbull judgement impact - We discussed the response of HB departments to recent circulars from DWP arising from the Turnbull judgement. The common feedback concerned maintaining effective arrangements for rent accounting, having clear evidence underpinning the setting of service charges, and potential issues about rent levels in privately funded shared housing schemes.
4. Research Findings - Updates included
   * The CLC Targeted Support Evaluation final report is imminent, we will post it to the blog as soon as possible.
   * Helen Sanderson research details. REACH is in discussion with Helen Sanderson about piloting person centered thinking for older people carol.eveson@reach-support.co.uk
   * Autism research details. We agreed that care needs to be taken in trafficking the “evidence base” in autism intervention. What’s measured is what interests the researchers and the evidence base is skewed to children (ABA mainly).
   * Swindon total transformation details. Simon Blackburn from REACH is planning to formally evaluate Services being developed by REACH in Swindon based on an IB model simon.blackburn@reach-support.co.uk
   * CLC would like to put together a research proposal looking at the social impact of multi-media advocacy.
5. Self Directed Services - Updates included:
   *Update on function and issues at In Control Cymru. Affordability and sustainability are real concerns. Members agreed to support Judith at the next learning event when she asks providers to help with ICC core costs.
   * In Control Provider Network is working effectively the programme of seminars and Action Learning Set are underway.
   * We discussed the links between personalisation and the Welsh Assembly’s sustainable development agenda. One Wales One Planet places community cohesion centrally in a policy of making Wales socially and environmentally  sustainable. This places a self directed services strategy based on a community development agenda squarely within a wider social agenda. CLC shared information about work that is taking place to look at more sustainable models of social care that could potentailly bring together sustainability and self directed services www.sustainable-lives.org.uk.
6. Commissioning for Best Practice - Updates Included:
   * The South Wales regional Social Care commissioning project managed by NPT was  discussed positively as an open well structured model of commissioning, we discussed the potential of building a more person centred front-end for systems like this.

Next meeting will be on the 5th May at 1pm at the Cartrefi Cardiff office and by video link at the Llandrindod Wells and Bangor Cartrefi offices.

You can get these minutes as a PDF document here AWCLN Meeting Notes 8th April 2009

Add comment May 4th, 2009

Independent Living, Direct Payments and the Tax System

Adrian shared a useful document from the Chartered Institute of Taxation - Low Incomes Tax Reform group entitled Independent Living, Direct Payments and the Tax System.

This document says that:

• A consequence of direct payments is that if the money is used to pay a personal assistant or carer, the user becomes an employer and is therefore obliged to operate PAYE and NIC and undertake other obligations of an employer. This is not always made known to users when they have to choose between direct payments or a more traditional form of care.

• The technicalities of PAYE, NIC, national minimum wage (NMW), and other aspects of being an employer, present many difficulties for direct payments users. Things are made worse by the lack of customer services targeted for users, and the fragmented nature of government involvement in direct payments policy and administration.

This report concludes with recommendations designed to facilitate better joining-up between the government departments responsible for direct payments and to improve presentation to the user. For HMRC, this would chiefly mean providing more specialist help for these ‘accidental’ direct payments employers through more focused helplines and information in more user-friendly formats, including print.

You can find this document by clicking on this Link

• Independent Living, Direct Payments and the Tax System
• You can get more information about the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s work in this area at http://www.litrg.org.uk

Add comment April 27th, 2009

Co-production and Social Care Transformation

Hello all

The Social Care Institute for Excellence has just produced a really research briefing about Co-production

• Co-production: an emerging evidence base for adult social care transformation

Co-production emphasises that people are not passive recipients of services and have assets and expertise which can help improve services.

This document suggests that

• ‘To act as partners, both users and providers must be empowered’. Co-production means involving citizens in collaborative relationships with more empowered frontline staff who are able and confident to share power and accept user expertise.

This is a really useful document, in reflecting on the implementation of self directed services in Wales transformational co-production may represent an essential buckle between out desire to create powerful personal services and the imperative to build sustainably cohesive communities.

This document is well worth a read, as is my current favorite book on this subject ‘No More Throw Away People’ by Edgar Cahn

Add comment April 27th, 2009

Re-scheduled AWCLN catch-up meeting 8th April

Hello all

Following the ’snow’ cancelled February meeting, we have scheduled an additonal catch up meeting  on the 8th April 2009 in the Cardiff Cartrefi offices at 10 until 11.30am. I am sorry that the teleconferencing facilities are not available on this date.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.

Thanks Rick

Add comment March 5th, 2009

Re-Tendering of Social Care Services - Survey of CCPS members in Scotland.

The Community Care Providers Scotland (CCPS) has conducted a survey among its member organisations in order to gain more insight into providers’ perspectives of the way in which re-tendering exercises are being taken forward in Scotland, and to illustrate some of the practical implications of re-tendering on provider organisations, their staff and the people they support.

Their report Re-Tendering of Social Care Services published in August 2008 makes interesting reading, it calls for

• Good practice standards for the involvement and engagement of people supported by existing services.
• Development of good practice indicators/guidance on the evaluation of ‘quality’ in tender exercises, and the weight accorded to quality in relation to cost.
• Development of procurement processes that encourage collaboration between providers in pursuit both of efficiencies and of service improvements, rather than cost-centred competition between individual provider organisations.

The report can be found at this link Re-Tendering of Social Care Service.

Post supplied by Adrian Roper

Add comment February 9th, 2009

NTK/09/01/8.0 Using the blog to manage the work of the group.

Item from our snowed off meeting of the 3rd Feb.

I am very sorry that our meeting was snowed off on the 3rd February, my apologies especially go to Jim who did not recieve the message and turned up at Cartrefi’s office.

Rather than re-schedule the meeting I thought we could try to use the blog to conduct as much of our business from the meeting as possible. This will give us an opportunity to try out the blog as a communication tool.

You can find our Agenda from the meeting by clicking on the link.

NTK/09/01/2 - Apologies; Ceri Meloy - New Dimensions; Sharon Burke - Anheddau; Juith North - Reach Support; John Craig - Walsingham; and Barry Gallagher - Drive all sent apologies prior to the meeting.

NTK/09/01/3 - Minutes for approval - the Minutes November 2008 meeting can be found by following the link,if you feel any corrections to these minutes are needed please put a comment on the page.

NTK/09/01/4 - Matters arising - if you had actions that you had to do from this meeting can you update us by putting a comment on the post with the minutes. If you feel that there are other matters arising please offer these as a comment.

NTK/09/01/5 - Update from LDW - I have published a post where Jim or Kate could offer us an update, you can find this here.

NTK/09/01/6 - Review of our Terms of Reference & Key Themes - I have published a post Terms of Reference where we can have an on-line discussion about these issues and you can leave comments if you choose.

NTK/09/01/7 - Key Theme activities I have published posts on each key theme and will try to get theme leaders to post updates to these pages, you can find these here:

• Best Practice in Care and Support
• Developing Best Practice in Housing Management
• Self Directed Services
• Commissioning for Best Practice
• Using Technology to Promote Independence

NTK/09/01/9 - Using the blog to manage the work of the group - well that’s what we are trying to do in this post, please tell me how you think it is going?

NTK/09/01/10 - AOB - Please let me know if you think there is business that we need to resolve, either by e-mailing me or contact awcln@communitylives.co.uk, or post a comment below.

The next meeting will be held on the 5th May 1 until 4 pm at the Cartrefi Cardiff office and by video link at the Llandrindod Wells and Bangor Cartrefi offices.

2 comments February 5th, 2009

NTK/09/01/7.8 Promoting Independence with ICT

Item from our snowed off meeting of 3rd Feb.

We will encourage Peter Russell to give an update here.

You can post your comments below

Add comment February 5th, 2009

NTK/09/01/7.7 Commissioning for Best Practice

Item from our snowed off 3rd Feb meeting.

We will encourage Barry to post an update here.

You can post your comments below

Add comment February 5th, 2009