Bury - Towards Independence
Situation
Undertaking a reassessment project was a key recommendation in the 2022 Opportunity Assessment by Alder Advice for Bury.
The aims were to ensure each person’s quality of life and wellbeing was being supported as well as possible, and to identify savings where possible.
The project involved the reassessment of 89 people with complex needs by an internal project team initially trained by and then provided with ongoing coaching by Alder Advice.
Response
Alder Advice provided a senior consultant and a consultant social worker to support the: • Internal team to plan the project. This included selecting the cases to include, identification and liaison with stakeholders, and risk identification and mitigation.
• Bury communications team to develop a communications strategy and materials.
• Project manager to set up project governance arrangements.
• Training of the internal project team. The Wider CLDT was also trained in the “Progression” © approach.
• Internal team to carry out the reassessments and to plan renegotiations. This is through weekly practice supervision meetings.
• Project manager to monitor progress and prepare highlight reports for regular reassessment programme board meetings.
• Development of ongoing reflection, learning, and development processes.
Results
Anticipated benefits include:
Improved wellbeing outcomes for the people being reassessed.
Working relationships with care and support providers should also improve.
Support packages will be “rightsized”. Fair joint funding arrangements will be agreed.
Anticipated net savings of up to £1.4 m p.a. Many of these savings will be recurring.
Commenting on the project Sue Massel (Assistant Director – Adult Social Care Operations Bury Integrated Care Partnership) said:
“We started off looking for savings, but the Towards Independence project is delivering so much more. For example, a refreshed and invigorated staff team with social workers and commissioners learning loads of new skills, and the feedback from our users is amazing. One young man told me he finally felt his support was ‘all about him’”