Agenda item

Co-Production in Adult Social Care

The Committee will be provided with an update on Co-Production in Adult Social Care.

Minutes:

The Committee received an update on Co-Production in Adult Social Care and Health.  Michelle Tenreiro-Perez, Social Care Reform Programme Manager Directorate of Communities and Adult Social Care (DCASC), provided a presentation which included the following points:

 

·         Co-production as stated in the Care Act 2014 was defined as ‘When an individual influences the support and services received, or when groups of people get together to influence the way that services are designed, commissioned, and delivered. It should bring people with lived and learned experience together as equals, to share power and to have influence over decisions that are made.’

·         Benefits of co-production for the Council included benefits for people who draw on services, for people who work in services, increased uptake of services, and increased knowledge and awareness in the community.

·         The Health and Care Act 2022 gave the CQC new regulatory powers to undertake independent assessment of local authorities’ delivery of regulated care functions set out in Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.  Assessments of local authorities commenced in late 2023 and the Council could receive notification that Reading’s assessment was due to commence at any time.

·         The status of co-production in the Council’s Adult Social Care and Health services reflected the national picture.

·         Examples of co-production had included projects with Compass Recovery College, the Autism Strategy, and the Joint All-Age Carers Strategy.

·         A Co-production and Engagement Officer started in a fixed term post of 23 months in December 2023.  Since in post achievements have included supporting service/user carer panels in interviews of senior officers, scoring of voluntary sector front door procurement, networking and connecting with other co-production leads, attending team meetings, development of easy read practice and vocabulary guidance and sourcing and exploration of external funding opportunities.

·         In March 2024 the Co-production and Engagement Officer chaired the first monthly ‘Working Together’ expert by experience panel. At the forum, attendees co-produced promotional material intended to increase attendance or encourage involvement by those who would like to be involved but who find attending regular meetings difficult.

·         The vision for Co-production in Adult Social Care and Health included signing up to the Social Care Futures Community of Support and taking inspiration from the Social Care Futures vision by developing a shared purpose statement for staff.

·         Future activities would be the delivery of a Co-production Charter, joint working to embed and deliver the new carer’s strategy, working with partners on the new build development for people with learning disabilities, developing a training programme for people with lived experience, communication launch both internally and externally of the ‘working together group’, review and amend Adult Social Care web pages, collaboration with housing regarding the new Disabled Facilities Grants Policy and working with the voluntary and community sector to co-produce a commissioned unpaid carer break offer.

·         Work to support the embedding of co-production had been agreed with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). SCIE were a leading improvement organisation and charity working with organisations at local and national level to support transformation in social care. The collaboration programme would be delivered over 4 stages: Building the Team, Insights, Make the Case and Bridge to Deliver.  The aim would be for the final stage to be concluded by the end of August 2024.

 

The Committee thanked Michelle for the presentation and requested an update be provided, with an update of the Joint All Age Carer’s Strategy, at the meeting in January.

 

Resolved – That an update on Co-Production in Adult Social Care and Health be provided at the meeting in January.

 

Supporting documents: