Welcome to the August 2022 edition of the Adult Social Care bulletin and what continues to be a busy world of ASC, and can you believe it we are halfway through the year already!

Reflecting back to the last bulletin Sally talked about our Coventry ‘Adult Social Care Offer’ which has been developed. This Offer has been produced so that we have a clear statement setting out the services we provide, what people can expect when they contact us and to share a range of useful contacts and links to resources. We have been holding a number of briefings via Teams during July complimented by face-to-face team briefings where this is more appropriate and for those staff who do not have Teams access. We want to make sure we embed the approach and ensure we understand the commitments being made. The document has been developed with the input of the Stakeholders Group and with feedback from people using services and carers.  

As Principal Social Worker a lot of my work involves a focus on practice and workforce development ensuring staff have access to good learning, support and practice conditions to enable them to do their job successfully. At the end of June 2022, we held our Annual Practice week with Children’s Services. It was a week of virtual sessions again using MS Teams and Zoom with over 32 sessions over the week providing what we hoped was some great learning and development opportunities and at the final count over 900 people had booked on to sessions over the week.

Finally, this bulletin continues to highlight some of the great work within Adult Social Care, alongside some key and imminent changes happening with the Care Cap. Please read and enjoy!   

Andrew Errington - Head of Practice Development & Safeguarding (Adults Principal Social Worker)

Within Adult Social Care we've produced a helpful statement explaining the support that can be provided by Adult Social Care.  

The delivery of Adult Social Care in Coventry focuses on approaches that promote well-being and independence to prevent, reduce or delay the need for long term support and to enable people to achieve their outcomes.

This year for the first time Adult Social Care has produced a ‘Coventry Adult Social Care Offer’ which is a clear statement explaining our vision and objectives, aligned to the Council’s One Coventry Plan ambitions. It has been developed as a way of setting out how we do things in Coventry including a description of what people can expect when they contact us, how they can participate in our work and useful links to  information and advice.

View the Adult Social Care Offer.

Learning Disability Promoting Independence Team

Welcome to the Learning Disability Promoting Independence Team. Following the success of the “Promoting Independence Team”, working with people with a physical impairment, it was noted that there was a great opportunity to work with people with learning disabilities and Autism, in a similar way. Now known as LD PI, the service launched in 2017, offering a short-term service to develop people’s existing skills and learn new skills.

Using a “strengths-based approach”, LD PI assessment is aspirational, identifying the skills people already have. We work closely with people to discover what they want, what they would like to achieve, and what networks and support they already have around them to achieve this.

LD PI work starts with an Occupational Therapy assessment. Once that is completed and individual goals and outcomes established, LD PI offers a 12 week period of assessment, for people to try things and consider a range of support options.

Our LD PI Multi-disciplinary team meets fortnightly to review new referrals and to discuss the progress of people we are already working with. In our LD PI Team we have:

• Occupational Therapist
• Social Care Worker
• Jenner8 – looking at community opportunities
• Outreach Support Service – offering support to manage money, housing, correspondence and attending important appointments.
• Independent Travel Training
• Employment Coach – “Connect2” project that runs from Coventry “Job Shop”. This work includes looking at paid and voluntary employment options and offers access to training courses that build confidence and develop “employability” skills.

Over the course of the 12 weeks, we work with people to develop their skills and learn new skills. We assess their progress at regular intervals. The aim of “promoting independence” is that ultimately people are enabled to manage without support, formal or informal. However, if at the end of the 12 weeks, people need ongoing support, the social care worker will complete a “Strengths and Needs” assessment under the Care Act 2014.

Working with adults age 18+, supporting people transitioning to adulthood, but also working with people who may have previously been independent, or people who have always had people caring for them, LD PI is a wonderful opportunity for people to develop independent living skills and make great use of what our local communities have to offer. It is also an opportunity for them to be a valued part of that community.

Over the course of the last five years (despite a short break for the pandemic!) the Learning Disability Promoting Independence Team has supported people to do things they didn’t think possible. We have enabled people to go the gym, learn to cook, get the bus into town, access Adult Education courses, move into their own homes, get a job and much, much, more. We are immensely proud to be part of this team, where the different services work closely together  to enable people to recognise their own strengths, achieve what they can and reach their fullest potential. 

From the 23 May 2022, new and enhanced services were introduced to support people to manage their direct payments. Penderels Trust have been the Direct Payment Support service in Coventry for many years and were successful in winning the tender for the main direct payment and money management services in Coventry.

The new contract includes many of the services that they offered before and new enhancements to this offer include:

• Support for personal assistants via an online community centre
• Development of the personal assistants register to improve recruitment
• Improved auditing of payroll to prevent and detect fraud

Contact Penderels Trust on 024 7651 1611 or visit the Penderels Trust website . 

Third Party Employment Support

The Council are now working with Solo Support Services in exceptional circumstances to employ personal assistants on behalf of adults who have been assessed as not having the capacity or capability to manage their own direct payment and do not have other family or friends that can take on this role on their behalf. For more information, visit the website or phone or email them at: 0345 241 5565 or info@solosupportservices.co.uk

Employer Insurance Cover

The Council have now commissioned Mark Bates Ltd. to provide employer cover to adults, carers or parents in receipt of a direct payment in Coventry who are employing their own personal assistants. This policy will provide direct payment employers with an enhanced level of cover at a lower cost and the Council will pay for this directly on behalf of the employer.

Real time experience survey

If you've had a recent assessment or support provided from Adult Social Care then we'd like to hear more about your experience. You can provide your feedback by accessing Access the Adult Social Care Experience survey. The survey is open to anyone whose received support from Adult Social Care recently and any carer who may have received support.  

We use any feedback to make sure we develop and improve our services and understand more about the realities of receiving support through Adult Social Care.  

The survey asks for your Care Director ID which can be found on any assessment or support plan you will have received as part of your care journey.  

Adult Social Care Stakeholder Group

The Adult Social Care Stakeholder Group meet every other month to discuss any upcoming developments, projects and changes. They are there to influence, make changes and help us improve the experience of people accessing Adult Social Care. The group is made up of people receiving support, carers and voluntary sector organisations. In June we met to discuss key topics such as Social Care Reforms, the upcoming Adult Social Care Offer and Our Approach to engagement. The group have input into the language and layout of the Adult Social Care Offer (even correcting typos). The group is growing and we're always looking for new members and people who are passionate about using their own experience to help shape our future practice. If you'd like to find out more information about the group and get yourself invited, you can email GetInvolvedASC@coventry.gov.uk for more information. 

This month we focus on the Care Cap on Cost reform. Irene Grant, Operational Manager – Financial Assessment gives a helpful summary below:

What is the Care Cap?

A cap on eligible care costs which will be set at £86,000 from October 2023. For the means test financial assessment, the upper care limit will rise to £100,000 (from £23,250) and the lower capital limit will increase to £20,000 from £14,250. 

Local authorities will set up care accounts to monitor progress towards the cap for both LA funded clients and Self funders. Before the cap comes into place, we will need to identify people who currently meet their own eligible care needs to understand the potential demand from self-funders, who would have eligible needs if assessed by us.

We are in the process of identifying the self-funders with the support of the contracted providers. Coventry will begin conducting early assessments from April 2023 to make the process as smooth as possible. Work is also underway for us to engage with Coventry citizens with assets under £100,000 (the new upper capital limit) who will now be eligible for financial support, including working-age adults who will likely meet the eligibility criteria.

Progress towards the cap will be based on a person’s contribution towards the cost of their eligible care as follows:

It is the amount the person is charged for their care, that counts towards the cap. Eligible care costs refer only to personal care and support component of any care and support package. 

An independent personal budget (IPB), where a person fully funds and arranges their own care. This will be the record that sets out what the cost would be to the LA of meeting the person’s eligible needs. It is this that counts towards the care cap (the amount that the LA would have paid to provide the care the self-funder has arranged).

Individual Care Accounts

We will set up care accounts to monitor progress towards the cap. LAs will maintain an up-to-date record of the costs a person is accruing towards the cap. This applies to everyone who is in their area and is assessed as having care and support needs. We will provide people with a statement of their care account every six months. We will be responsible for keeping track of an individual’s progress towards the cap.

The care account will include the total cost of meeting someone’s eligible needs, the clients current rate of progress towards the cap, total amount the person has accrued towards the cap to date and amount attributable to DLCs. When the care account indicates the person will reach the cap within 12 months, we will be required to notify the person of the date they are expected to reach the cap and work with the person to ensure a smooth transition to LA support, unless the person objects, the local authority becomes responsible for meeting the person’s eligible care and support needs and for paying the cost of the care to meet those needs. The person will remain responsible for meeting or contributing to their DLCs and any top-up payments they have chosen to make.

ASC

“Thank You” to the team at Maurice Edelman House- Cheers for Peers! REWORD- EXPLAIN CHEERS FOR PEERS THEN SHARE STORY

Our internally provided service “Maurice Edelman House” is a care home for adults with Learning Disabilities. The last two years have been extremely demanding for all the staff working there. The manager of the service, Julie Alleyne, wanted to have the opportunity to really express her thanks to the team- “Staff have gone that extra mile throughout the pandemic; I was overwhelmed by their dedication to the people we support. But the team now showed signs of being tired and resilience being lower than usual- I wanted a motivation booster for the team”. The service manager, Gerda Dunn added, Cheers for Peers launched just at the right time for us - it gave us additional tools to express our thanks to the team and to jointly, with the team, explore our priorities going forward.

Tracey Denny, Head of Service, was in attendance and handed out individual thank-you cards to all staff present. Tracey stated ‘I was really honoured to be invited and to have the opportunity to say thank you in person to the staff from Maurice Edelman. None of us can even begin to understand how physically, mentally and emotionally draining it must have been to work as a front-line Health or Social Care professional throughout the pandemic – it’s great that Julie and Gerda have arranged today – Thank You to all the staff at Maurice Edelman!

For more information please go to Cheers from Peers or email EmployeeRecognition@coventry.gov.uk