Have you had your People Team Brief yet?

March saw the launch of the new People Team Brief. This is an information briefing that is issued on the first Monday of each month to be cascaded to colleagues via the management chain.

It is intended to be delivered to colleagues face to face wherever possible and includes important information about the directorate's business.

By now you should have received the March Team Brief from your manager. If you have not, please speak to your manager.

To ensure that no-one misses out on the information in Team Brief, you can view the Team Brief for your service area from the link below.

+ VIEW THE PEOPLE TEAM BRIEF FOR MARCH

If you have any questions about the content of Team Brief that have not been answered, or would like to provide feedback please do so via the link below:

+ QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK

The next People Team Brief will be circulated to Senior Managers to cascade on 1 April.

SEND Ofsted/CQC inspection - update from AD Dan Barton

"Following Cumbria’s Local Area SEND Inspection, carried out last week jointly by inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), we wanted to write to you all.

"First and foremost, to thank you all for your efforts, either directly this week in working with inspection teams and contributing to their experience of the Cumbrian system, and also each and every day in work, where your dedication, creativity and commitment continue to make a difference to the lives of some of our most vulnerable children, young people and families. It is very clear how well valued you all are..."

+ READ FULL BRIEFING

Adult Social Care redesign - update from AD Cath Whalley

"The first stage of Adult Social Care Reshaping consultations commenced on Monday this week, and over the course of the week I delivered the proposals at eight sessions, held across Barrow, Kendal, Carlisle, concluding in Workington on Thursday.   

"Interestingly, the morning sessions had much greater attendance than the afternoon sessions, and I am keen to confirm numbers of attendees from the events, to understand what proportion of those affected have been able to attend a session.    

"All of the sessions generated lots discussion; there are already some similar themes emerging, but also lots of different questions, ideas and view points. Understandably people want to know what it means for them individually, and over the coming weeks there will be opportunity to take part in 1:1s. 

"All of the documentation is now on Intouch, and I strongly urge everyone who is in scope to take time to review this, and to use this consultation opportunity to have your say, and get involved in shaping the future of adult social care."

+ VIEW RESHAPING INFORMATION

To mark this year's World Social Work Day people across the county came together to celebrate.

There was a great turn out of social workers as well as other colleagues from throughout the council who came to pass on their thanks and show their support. 

Thank you to everyone who took part including those who shared their stories, the managers who hosted the events and everyone who attended.

A special thanks to colleagues from Cumbria Care who baked hundreds of delicious cakes for the celebrations.

+ VIEW VIDEO OF PHOTOS FROM THE EVENTS

Karen speaks at Kings Fund conference

In recognition of the excellent progress that has been made in North Cumbria integrating organisations and services and developing ICCs, representatives were invited to deliver a presentation at The Kings Fund event: Delivering Integrated Care: Learning from experience. The team attending reflected the integrated system with both health and care representatives: Professor John Howarth (System Clinical Lead North Cumbria and Deputy Chief Executive CPFT), Karen Bell (Service Manager - North, Cumbria County Council), Caroline Evans (Associate Director CPFT), Vanessa Connor (ICC Development Manager CPFT) and Clare Nicolson (OT & Therapy Team Lead CPFT).

The team described their journey of building a fully integrated ‘population health system’ starting with laying the foundations of a system leadership team with community health, social care, third sector, public health and communities. The presentation was well received and generated lots of interest with health and care organisations keen to visit Cumbria to learn more. The team also found it useful to learn from other area’s about how they have been shaping services to deliver integrated care in practice.

+ VIEW THE PRESENTATION

Tarn House residents in Barrow have learnt new life saving skills after completing the Heartstart training course

Heartstart came to the home on Friday 15^th March to deliver the training and the group of six service users learnt how to deal with bleeds, the recovery position and how and when to perform CPR.

Michael Dobson a service user said “It was brilliant! I am so happy that I learnt these new skills and that if needed I could help save someone.” Everyone passed the course and was presented with a certificate.

North West medical services are offering free Heartstart first aid courses to the public.

The training was provided for free by North West Medical Services.

Best Interest Assessors training success

We are working in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) to deliver Best Interest Assessor training to Social Workers and Occupational Therapists. Jo Evans, Caroline Briggs, Carol Klein and Naomi Smith have all recently undertaken the training.

After five taught days, an assignment and an exam, they all passed with flying colours....

Carol said, "I would recommend this qualification to any OT – it really challenges and enhances your skills and is so worth it." 

Jo said, "This is invaluable training and a fantastic opportunity to touch base with values and ethics as well as legal frameworks’. Their training will support everyday practice and will also enable them to undertake Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) assessments. A huge well done to you all.

The next intake for Best Interest Assessor training is in June. Practitioners who are interested must have at least two years post-qualifying experience and the support of their manager.

+ MORE INFO BECKY.SQUIRES@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

Barrow support group in media spotlight

A new men's support group in Barrow has had media attention last week for its work supporting a young man in Barrow who had attempted suicide.

The group was set up by Health and Wellbeing Coach Deborah Henry (pictured with service user Mark Bell). We asked her to explain a bit more...

"The group was set up after we were studying our Health and Wellbeing Coaching degrees where our studies led to the recognition of the health inequalities for men in Barrow compared to the rest of the country. Services specifically aimed at men are very few in Barrow so Lyndsey Garside, Furness HAWC Team, through her direct work with clients identified a gap in provision and they came up with the idea of doing a men’s group where men could come together to connect to seek support from other men or be signposted to the appropriate community services. We also invite other community groups to come to talk to the group about specific issues. The long term aim is for the group to be an asset based community development project where the attendees eventually take over the running of the group as a social enterprise with our support."

+ MORE INFO DEBORAH.HENRY@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

ICC Action Groups launch with focus on smoking and obesity

This month saw the launch of the first Integrated Care Communities Action Groups, with sessions in Maryport, Cockermouth and Workington; Keswick and Solway to follow in April. Obesity, smoking in manual workers and smoking in pregnant mums were identified as priority areas.

An action plan will be pulled together now showing the priorities people feel should be tackled; then the ICC Delivery Group will map out how to implement these.

Read more from the Times and Star.

+ MORE INFO VALERIE.AYRE@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

New online tool to support young people with life skills

In conjunction with DigitalMe (part of the City & Guilds Group), the Youth Homeless and Housing Team have developed a range of digital courses under the following themes:

Health & Wellbeing; Home and Living Alone; Leaving Care; Me Time; Mental Health; and Relationships.

These courses are designed to be completed by young people aged 14 years+ and can be completed on-line with support, on their own or in groups. Young people can register on the website and create a profile. 

Successful completion of the course means that the young person can claim the 'badges' onto their profile and receive a Cumbria County Council’s certificate.  Once the young person has registered on the site, they are also able to access badges from other academies. 

+ MORE INFO DIANE.HARRISON2@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

Focus on domestic violence in new Ofsted report

Louise Kelly, Domestic and Sexual Abuse Business Coordinator, and colleagues recently attended a Better for Children seminar hosted by Ofsted.

Ofsted presented the outcomes from their latest Joint Targeted Inspection. Their report calls for a national public service initiative to raise awareness of domestic abuse and violence, a greater focus on perpetrators and better strategies for the prevention of domestic abuse.

+ READ THE FULL BRIEFING TO FIND OUT HOW CUMBRIA IS RESPONDING

Wellbeing service launched in Eden, Keswick & Solway

A new service to help more people look after their health and wellbeing has now started in Eden and Keswick & Solway Integrated Care Communities (ICCs).

The Wellbeing Service is based in GP practices and forms a key part of primary care teams within Eden and Keswick & Solway ICCs. The new staff (pictured) are supporting the non-medical and psychological needs of adults with long term health conditions, including frailty, multi-comorbidities or those who have had a recent change in life circumstance and associated psycho-social difficulties.

+ READ MORE

Positive feedback from multi-agency learning event 

On 5th March 2019 North Cumbria CCG's Louise Mason-Lodge and Chair of the CSAB Learning & Development subgroup, facilitated a multi-agency workshop in Cumbria House, Carlisle. The event was attended by over 40 practitioners from Adult Social Care, Cumbria Constabulary, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Housing, 3rd and Independent sector organisations and Care Agencies.

Participants were given the opportunity to discuss a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) case study to gain a better understanding of each others roles within the SAR process. Due to the event success more learning and sharing opportunities like this will be planned for the future.

+ READ THE FULL EVENT EVALUATION BRIEFING

Fiona Musgrave, Assistant Director Integration and Partnerships visits Susan Renucci, Reablement Business & Systems Manager, Cumbria House

Fiona Musgrave

I had the privilege to be asked to shadow the Reablement Business and Systems Team in Cumbria House. The Manager Susan Renucci, who I have known for many years, since our days at Carlisle City Council was very generous with her time and patiently took me through the work of the team, the systems and processes they use and described for me a very busy, high-pressured and sometimes stressful work environment.

The role of the team is to manage and schedule reablement, domiciliary and night service care in people’s home. I learned that reablement aims to help people regain their independence following say an illness or injury a stay in hospital, an injury for example. It is a short term intervention (NOT 6 weeks as Susan was keen to point out to me!) and depends on individual needs. They work with people to develop or regain the skills and confidence to do things for themselves by building on their strengths and abilities.

Susan showed me the systems they use, both in the office (a very complicated and complex rostering system) and the App the workers who are out in the field use on their phones to know not only where they need to be and what they need to be doing, but also to ensure they are safe, day and night, by “clicking” when they arrive and leave appointments. She also showed me the performance tracking and monitoring systems that the team are using – which for anyone that knows me – I loved.
We discussed what was challenging for the Central Business Function – and we agreed that it was covering support worker’s shifts due to leave or sickness across Cumbria, as well as juggling rotas due to staff attending training or supervisions. Also, managing the volume of requests for start dates for those needing to start in the reablement service particularly those needing to be discharged from hospital. For Susan’s role in particular it was around the expansion of the service moving from a reablement service to a reablement and support at home service to include domiciliary and night service and the programme of development work ongoing within the service.

An eye opening session and one that has led me to ask for a shadowing opportunity to go out with a worker for a day and follow them visiting and supporting people in their own homes! So if you want to share a day with me, then please get in touch or contact Bridget Slee in the Communication’s Team and we can set something up.

Massive thanks to Susan and the Team.

Susan Renucci

I have known Fiona for many years, so I was delighted to have Fiona shadowing the service area that I manage; Central Business Function for Reablement and Support at Home Service, so I could talk about some of my team’s achievements following implementing this new function. I talked Fiona through how we utilise technology such as Skype so the staff who are on duty dealing with all the telephone calls can stay in contact with their colleagues in Barrow, South Lakes or West Cumbria.

We talked through the pathways into the service and future developments and what each role is responsible for, along with the volume of work that we deal with on a daily basis. Fiona was impressed with the expansion of the service as we are now a 24 hour service also delivering domiciliary in Carlisle, South Lakes and Barrow and soon Copeland and night service following bringing this in-house last July for North and West. We particularly focused on how the service supports individuals on a short term basis to regain independence to prevent them from needing long term support. 

We had some time looking at the system that is used to roster support calls to staff and also the performance dashboard that I developed with support from our performance colleagues, which I know is something we both have a passion for……..systems and data!

I found Fiona’s visit really worthwhile, especially as I am managing Phase 1 of the Rehab and Reablement integration project, and Fiona is the Assistant Director overseeing this huge piece of work.

Book your AD Workshadowing

Take the opportunity to invite an AD to visit you to see the work that you and your team do. See below dates, times and locations that are available:

• Dan Barton; 14th May - 09:00-12:00 - West
• Lynn Berryman; Countywide & 13th May - 13:30-16:30 - West & 17th May - Afternoon - West & 13th June - 09:30-12:30 - South & 8th July - 11:00-16:00 - South
• Pam Duke; 4th April - 09:30-12:00 - West
• Fiona Musgrave; 28th March - 10:00-13:00 - West
• Colin Cox; 9th April - 12:00-17:00 - Carlisle or Eden & 30th April - 13.00-16:30 - South & 11th June - 09:30-13:00 - South
• Jo Atkinson; 29th March - 09:30-12:30 - Carlisle or Eden & 26th April 09:00-12:00 - West & 9th May - 09:00-12:00 - South

If you're keen to get involved but the times listed above don't work for you, please get in touch and we'll look for an alternative.

Remember, we will ask you for your reflections on the visit to include in People News (and don't forget to take some pics!)

+ TELL US WHICH AD YOU WOULD LIKE TO INVITE