Date: Friday, 05 February 2010
Dear Director
Support for local delivery of personal budgets
As you will be aware, the delivery of personal budgets remains a core requirement of the Putting People First (PPF) transformation, and this objective retains very strong government, local government and ADASS support. Its importance has been underlined by DH circulars, and PPF ‘Milestones’, and progress in this area will form a key part of CQC assessment in the coming year.
Significant numbers of personal budgets (PBs) are now being offered across the country, and this delivery continues to pick up speed. However, as all councils move to mainstream PB delivery over the next 12 months, for some this will pose significant challenges. The PPF Consortium (ADASS, LGA/IDeA and DH), working with the regional JIPs, is keen therefore to ensure that access to specialist support and advice is made available to such councils to assist progress.
It is planned that in every region there will be an identified regional lead person for personal budgets, available to offer councils an individual discussion about progress and challenges. Where needed, there will also be access to specialist help to councils around personal budget delivery. This will be arranged by regional staff, making use of a pool of suitably experienced people. These specialist support staff will work ‘on the ground’ directly with a small number of councils.
An outline giving some more details of the planned support is attached. This is built on existing regional arrangements. I will be discussing this further with JIP chairs and ADASS Personalisation lead Directors separately, in the hope that there can be clear agreement in each region between them and the DRD about how this work is being taken forward and what support can be offered to individual councils. It is inevitable however that resources for such dedicated input will be limited, and support will only be offered to councils on a selective basis.
To make this work I am keen to encourage councils with more experience of implementing personal budgets to offer help and advice to other councils. We are looking for experienced staff who could be released part-time to join the specialist support team we are setting up. This could be for as little as two days per month (but ideally more). It would enable staff to gain wider experience and to help their colleagues elsewhere.
So, please let me know:
- If you would welcome an early discussion with your regional transformation lead about your need for specialist support.
- If you are able to offer the time of an experienced staff member to help another council over the next few months.
Finally, please note that in approximately ten days time we will be issuing a short easy to complete electronic ‘facts and figures’ survey. This will update the personal budget information gathered in last year’s ADASS PPF survey.I would be grateful if you would alert relevant staff (particularly finance and performance) to this fact, as the turn round time will be tight.
Sincerely
Jeff Jerome
National Director for Social Care Transformation
Appendix 1 – Local delivery support for personal budgets
Aims
The objective is to speed up local delivery of personal budgets, within the philosophy and spirit of Putting People First. Specialist external support will be available on a regional basis to those councils who wish to take advantage of it, on an entirely voluntary basis. The project will be jointly led and delivered by the Local Government Consortium and the Department of Health, as part of the joint Putting People First work programme. In the final year of the Putting People First delivery programme, the intention is to move towards providing direct support to councils on the ground, based on a good understanding of the progress and local issues in each council.
Key actions
- Understanding progress: ADASS sent all councils the Putting People First self-improvement framework in November 2009. ADASS encourages all councils to use this framework on a quarterly basis to assess overall progress on the Putting People First milestones. This will help to identify whether a council might benefit from extra support.
- Support to councils: the local delivery of personal budgets project will operate from Feb 2010 until March 2011. It will help councils to speed up progress, share learning on how to tackle obstacles, and provide targeted extra support where needed. There will be central coordination (via the Putting People First Consortium and the DH Putting People First team), but responsibility for delivery will rest with regional partners and delivery will be by existing ADASS, JIP and DH regional staff, supported by a consistent nationally-agreed approach.
Resources
This work will be supported through the use of Joint Improvement Partnership posts, existing DH staff in national and regional delivery teams, plus additional specialist expertise. Some of the funding for specialist support will be made available from the DH Putting People First central budget. The rest will be negotiated on a region by region basis depending on requirements and availability.
Outline of local delivery support
The identified (designated) regional staff will respond to invitations from all councils wanting to take part by carrying out an initial visit. Discussion should ideally involve local senior managers, including the DASS or their assistant director, and should be informed by the council’s most recent assessment of progress using the ADASS self-improvement framework. Agreement should be reached regarding:
- the stage the council has reached in implementing personal budgets
- what level of support the council would like
- the kinds of support that will be helpful
- what will be required of the council for it to fully benefit from the project.
Levels of support
Involvement in the project will be on an “opt-in” basis. There is no compulsion for councils to take part. A support agreement will be reached with each council setting out the support to be provided, timescales and the expectations on the council. At the start of the project, informed by usage of the ADASS self-improvement framework, councils may require one of the following levels of support:
Level of support / Targeted at / Focus / Core support / Specialist supportNone / Councils already making good progress
Councils that decide not to take up support /
- Gathering learning
Low / Councils facing some obstacles with implementing personal budgets /
- Keeping track of progress
- Advice with tools and systems
- Sharing learning with other councils
- Initial visit
- Communication via existing regional networks (at least every 3 months)
- Possible follow-up visits
High / Councils facing significant obstacles with implementing personal budgets but where there is scope for rapid progress) /
- Programme management
- Keeping track of progress
- Advice on tools and systems
- On-site implementation support
- Supporting culture change
- Monthly on-site visit
- Detailed support agreement
- Up to 2 additional days on-site support per month
specialist support per month
Councils opting for low level support will be offered follow-up visits to discuss progress and troubleshoot issues. We expect this to be the option selected by most councils taking part.
We expect to offer high level support to only a small number of councils. These councils will have a genuine need for extra capacity and skills, and be in a position to make rapid progress. We will agree a tailored support plan with these councils based around a set of implementation tools. The plan will be reviewed every 3 months.
The main areas of support offered to these councils will include:
1. Programme management
- Sharing knowledge from other councils
- Drawing on existing resources including the DH personalisation toolkit and ADASS published materials on self-directed support and personal budgets.
- Commenting on local project plans
2. Leadership, communication and culture change
- Helping ensure that managers and staff understand the principles of self-directed support
- Supporting learning events for staff, providers and partner organisations
3. System development
- Working with the council to ensure that personal budgets provide genuine choice and control and are based on the principles of self-directed support.
- Support with implementing key aspect of self-directed support, including business process, resource allocation, support planning and reviews
- Making sure that systems are in place to understand the outcomes being achieved
Progress for the councils taking part will be measured in the following ways:
- The ADASS self-improvement framework
- Numbers of people with personal budgets (within the NI130 definition)
1