P&P reference group Minutes – 16th April 2012, 10.30-12.30
Apologies: Nigel Henderson, Penumbra; Megan Wilson, Sense Scotland; Sam Smith, C-Change; Theresa Shearer, Enable; Alice Drife, Momentum Scotland.
Present: Andrea Woods, Key (chair); Jude Currie, Crossreach; Kirsten Hogg, Camphill Scotland; Helen Waddell, Action Group; Gerry Wells, Quarriers; Maggie Fleming, Carr Gomm
In attendance: Annie Gunner Logan, Dee Fraser, Catherine Garrod (minutes)
1. Minutes of last meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed with no changes.
2. Matters arising
Request to collect accessible Individual Service Agreements from providers for the P&P website. Dee has sourced one ISF from Places for People but is still looking for examples of ISF contracts from Scottish Providers. Andrea – Key may have an example and Penumbra may have produced some accessible versions of contracts.
Action Dee- put collected agreements to the resources section of the website once she has received them.
Personalisation Workforce Survey - Dee reported that the uptake had been very low and a new version of the survey was being drafted.
3. Programme Update
Dee gave an outline of the Programme Update and invited comments.
Policy
· Recent and planned events include:
- Housing Support and Personalisation held in March
- Guardianship and SDS event held in April.
- Highland event ‘Are you ready for Personalisation?’ in May.
- Local authority/Provider facilitation of SDS implementation.
- SDS Bill consultation event
University of Strathclyde Research
P&P will re-issue a new shorter version of the survey next month and hopefully this will increase uptake.
Building a national picture: Provider Support Projects
Organisations have been submitting details of their programmes. This mapping exercise will enable us to produce information on who is providing support and where. IRISS will be assisting with producing an online interactive map of support services.
Joint Work
P&P are providing the following events in partnership with other organisations:
- SDSS joint policy event on brokerage planned for July
- Scottish Care joint practice event on SDS to be held on April 25th
Kirsten commented that it is important that P&P continues to run events that still cover the basics of SDS as many providers are not yet ready to move on to more advanced issues.
Annie highlighted that Scottish Care had been very keen to run a joint programme of events with P&P for both private and voluntary sector care providers, however CCPS has decided that this was not appropriate. The issues are very different in the different sectors and instead we have agreed to get together for occasional events on some common concerns. Dee added that P&P did not want to be too closely associated with Scottish Care as there were conflicting issues. Andrea added that it will be interesting to see how private sector providers will be able to demonstrate a focus on meeting outcomes whilst maintaining a very cheap hourly rate.
P&P are working with IRISS on a couple of projects to gather evidence on how SDS is working in practice. The SDS Explorers group is gathering information on the individual’s journey through SDS and highlighting any problems with the implementation of SDS.
Practice Exchange
P&P have run a number of practice exchange events for providers including two events on Social Media and Personalisation, with further events planned for May on Marketing & Systems.
Commissioning for Outcomes
The project is now looking at outcomes focussed commissioning for foster care providers (Falkirk) so is slightly out with the P&P remit. A discussion followed on whether there was merit in P&P continuing to be involved in this project and whether it has drifted away from the SDS focus. Andrea commented that one of the biggest challenges we face is commissioning and how local authorities move from commissioning on outputs to commissioning for individual outcomes. Kirsten asked whether we should be being more proactive with challenging or influencing local authorities on the way they commission services. Annie said that there was a move away from hourly rates and towards outcomes based commissioning but that outcomes for individuals should be flexible and open for review. Nancy at CCPS is also working on this issue around measuring outcomes.
It was suggested that P&P should have a Practice Exchange event focused on outcomes based assessments and monitoring and systems. This would be an opportunity for organisations to share how they are doing with moving to SDS and individual support planning, as well as IT systems and tools for monitoring.
Action: Dee to look at including this as part of the Financialising Outcomes event.
DotComUnity
Catherine gave an update on her work promoting DotComUnity and highlighted some of the issues with the website. Andrea requested a paper for discussion on this for the next meeting. Catherine will also send a link to a survey of the DotComUnity website to the group.
Action: Catherine to circulate the survey questionnaire on the DotComUnity website to members of the P&P reference group. Catherine to prepare paper for discussion at next meeting.
5. Event Feedback
Dee gave feedback from various events that she had attended.
6. P&P Programme- proposal for 2012-15
Annie explained that the Scottish Government had approached CCPS requesting a proposal for a further 3 years funding for the P&P programme. There had been a very short time scale for submitting the proposal and no time for any consultation. The programme is still flexible and can change to meet the needs of providers if any gaps are identified.
Dee outlined the new items in the P&P Programme proposal which included a focus on partnership work between local authorities and providers. The programme included funding for 5 events each year working with local authorities and providers. Dee would welcome any suggestions about whether P&P focuses the programme on one or two local authorities and carry an intensive systems change project, or whether we open these events up to a larger group of local authorities and providers.
7. SDS and Guardianship Roundtable Discussion
P&P hosted a roundtable discussion with representatives from the Mental Welfare Commission and providers. It seemed that there was no firm evidence of misuse of Guardianship, but there had been a significant increase in requests for Guardianship orders in Glasgow mainly due to the roll out of SDS and reassessments of care packages for people who lack capacity. George asked whether anyone was monitoring the numbers of Guardianship requests. The Learning Disability Alliance Scotland (LDAS) have gathered information on this via a Freedom of Information request.
8. SDS Bill Consultation Event for Providers
Dee outlined the main issues raised by providers:
- need for providers to be involved in local authority process of developing SDS processes
- providers think that provisions for information and advice are too weak and would like to see funding for independent advocacy, brokerage and that this should not be sourced from individual budget.
- the need for a statutory right to be able to access independent advocacy for vulnerable people (similar to the Mental Health Act).
9. SDS Procurement and Contracts Update
Annie and Dee gave an update from the meetings in Glasgow. A number of issues had been raised including problems with subcontracting. Glasgow council had said that the Provider was responsible for the way the Individual Budget was spent, even if it was for external purposes. There were issues about provider’s capacity to deliver on the Individual Service Fund when dealing with numerous individual contracts.
10. Report back from CCPS Representatives on SDS Groups:
Self-directed support data collection group
Dee can circulate data about this if anyone wants more information.
Self- directed support workforce subgroup
P&P will be contributing to the SDS workforce sub group organised by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government SDS Bill Steering Group Meeting is on the 18th April.
Dates for next meeting – Dee will circulate dates for the next meeting.
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