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SOCIAL SERVICES NORTH WEST
MEETING ON 15 MARCH 2001 AT TAMESIDE
REPORT OF THE CO-ORDINATOR
MAKING QUALITY COUNT -
REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE HELD ON 17 MAY 2001
1. Matter for Consideration:
To report to members on the conference held at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton last month under the Performance Assessment and Quality strand of the Annual Work Programme.
2. Information:
2.1 The conference was attended by over 50 members and officers from across the region. This showed the value to our member authorities of bringing top-line national speakers to the region, then adding a local flavour to those contributions by some inputs from amongst our own communities. In opening the conference, I reported that the members of Social Services North West had met last June to determine the work priorities for the next 12 months. Amongst the top four of these was the issue of Performance Assessment and Quality. We all know how important it is that our service users, carers and communities should receive the best possible service, but the mechanisms for verifying this are more numerous and complex than ever before. It is vitally important, however, that we make sense of all these approaches, and ensure that they mesh together to produce benefits for those whom we serve.
2.2 The first presentation was on the subject "Developing SCIE - the Social Care Institute for Excellence", and was given by Don Brand, Director of Policy and Workforce Development at the National Institute of Social Work. He has a major responsibility in developing SCIE, which has a key role in the government's strategy to raise the quality of social care provision. Its task will be to research and disseminate information to social care professionals about what methods and services work best, and tackle current variations in care across the country. Don Brand first addressed the functions envisaged for SCIE, and its relationships with the new framework of regulatory bodies - GSCC, NCSC and TOPSS. He explained how SCIE fits into the Government's overall Quality Strategy, including the proposed "local quality framework" and the lead role envisaged for members and directors in securing quality of service and practice.
2.3 The second presentation, on Performance Management and Joint Reviews, was given by John Bolton, Review Director of the Joint Review Team at the Audit Commission. He has wide experience in social services, latterly as assistant director with responsibility for quality and support services in Camden. Joint Reviews provide an independent assessment of how well the public is being served by social services locally. The reviews identify what authorities do well, and highlight those areas that could be improved. A rolling programme is being carried out by a specialist national team, managed jointly by the Audit Commission and the Department of Health's Social Services Inspectorate. John Bolton spoke of performance management as the setting of objectives and measurement of progress towards meeting them. Thus all managers know what is required of them. Users and carers are at the centre of service delivery, and the Joint Review team use data to make an assessment of how well people are being served, linking its methodology to the overall rating of performance of local social services authorities.
- The next presentation, on Measuring Performance at the Health / Social Care Interface, was given by Sue Lightup, Deputy Director at Bolton and currently on secondment to the North West Regional office of the NHS Executive. She spoke of the multi-disciplinary Regional Change Agent team to which she and others had been seconded, to help with 'hot spots' and capacity problems and find and disseminate good practice in Intermediate Care. She outlined the approach the team had adopted and the model of intermediate care to which they worked. Again, service users and their carers were at the centre of their approach. She then examined the performance management tools used in the NHS and in the joint arena with social services, underlining the benefit of such joint working to the eventual outcome.
2.5 In the final session, Peter Hewitt, John Bolton and Sue Lightup were joined on the panel by David Whyte, Deputy Director of Warrington and Peter Munro, Social Care Group, SSI. David Whyte, who heads the regional group of Performance Assessment leads, spoke of the various dimensions and indicators of quality which were being pursued within the region, including a benchmarking club and the Business Management Group. There had been much talk today of indicators today as if they were hard and clear-cut, but he warned of the need to attend to the 'wobbly indicators', which were often those of most concern to users and carers. It was the feelings they experienced, the choices they made, and the outcomes for them, which were the most important indicators of success.
2.6 Peter Munro spoke of four key roles of the Department of Health and colleagues in relation to performance assessment and quality:
- National targets /objectives /performance indicators
- Collecting /collating /disseminating statistics and other data
- External evaluation and inspection
- Annual Review Meeting
The overall task was to identify the strengths, the development needs and the capacity to improve within each authority. He felt optimistic about improvements both in the process of performance assessment, and in the performance of authorities themselves.
2.7 Key issues identified in the closing discussion were:
- the need to streamline data gathering and reduce bureaucratisation
- data needs to be accessible and usable to staff and users
- the challenges of securing valid stakeholder involvement and the role of independent advocacy
- the role of area and community forums in securing consumer feedback and challenging providers
- the need for people and their needs to predominate over institutions and buildings
- the need for enabling alternatives to traditional patterns of provision
- The evaluation sheets submitted by participants were overwhelmingly favourable, and it is felt that the conference has made a further contribution to the development of knowledge and practice of performance management within the Region. Subject to decisions on next year's work programme, it is proposed that Social Services North West continues to work with the various regional officer groups in addressing the issues highlighted above, and that a further report is presented in due course.
2.9 Full reports of all the presentations are available on the Social Services North West website, and in printed form from the Social Services North West office by request.
3. Recommendations:
3.1 That the report be noted
3.2 That the issues be progressed at officer level and a further report be presented in due course.
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