Hello everyone, my name is Kirstin Clarke, and I am absolutely thrilled to have joined Coventry City Council in Adult Social Care as the Assistant Director for Adult Social Care this week. What an incredible first week it was! I come from Cambridgeshire County Council, and before that, I worked for Warwickshire County Council, where I qualified as a Social Worker in 2002 (I cannot believe it has been over two decades!). My first week has shown me just how welcoming, friendly, inclusive, and supportive Coventry's culture is.

Kirstin Clarke

Assistant Director Adult Social Care

Celebrating the Care Act 2014

Can you believe this April, will be 10 years since the implementation of Care Act? The then Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb described the Care Bill as being the biggest reform to the Social Care system in more than 60 years. Having a role in the implementation of Care Act before I joined Coventry, I recall the work that was needed to review our approaches and practices which included;

• strengthened rights for carers with an increased focus on informal carers
• a new national eligibility framework
• a new adult safeguarding framework
• strengthened rights for deafblind people and a need to ensure needs are assessed by a qualified person
• independent advocacy, to ensure involvement of people in assessments and planning for care and support
• and of course a focus on strength based approaches and people’s capabilities rather than deficits

Andrew Errington 

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Development (Principal Social Worker)

ASC Direct Payment Strategy 2024-29 – help us develop our approach

Adult Social Care have published a Direct Payment Strategy which aims to focus on the key areas which enable people who wish to have greater choice & control of the support they receive from Adult Social Care in the form of a Direct Payment.

We are also looking to work with people who have lived experience of using a Direct Payment to provide feedback on how we can improve the process for people wishing to consider using a Direct Payment to meet their assessed care needs and to offer peer support to others who are using a Direct Payment for the first time. 

A Direct Payment Newsletter is being sent out to all Direct Payment recipients and there is a link to the new Direct Payment Questionnaire to give us feedback to improve Direct Payments and to identify if they want to get involved.

Please help us by completing this survey if you have experience of accessing Direct Payments. 

Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard (SC-WRES)

In 2023, we volunteered to take part in the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard, run by the Department for Health and Social Care with Skills for Care. The WRES programme aims to progress workforce race equality in adult and children’s social care and empower local authorities to address any gaps or concerns of inequality in their workforce.  

The programme creates a framework for progressing workforce race equality and requires local authorities to collect and submit data on an annual basis on nine key metrics which highlight differences in experience of Black, Asian and minoritised staff. This isn’t just data for data’s sake this is to learn, challenge and understand the experience of staff.

We have now published our action plan for 2023/24 and where we have identified any issues these are being monitored and addressed by our Workforce Board. We are currently working on our plan for 2024/25.

The Council will be running four workshops where people with lived experience will be able to contribute to the design of new services to support people in Coventry.  Each session will last for around 90 minutes and will involve group discussions and activities to understand the type of support you would like to see.

The aim of these sessions will to be to co-design future services and support that will be delivered across the city.  

You are welcome to bring a friend, family member or carer with you. Sessions will be held at the Coventry Dementia Hub. If you are interested in attending, please email getinvolvedasc@coventry.gov.uk for further details and to sign up.

If you require any support to attend the session please let us know: 

• 20 May 2-4pm for people with personal experience of mental ill health or hoarding
• 22 May 10-12 noon for people over 65 with limited support networks or with personal experience of dementia
• 22 May 2-4pm for people with personal experience of learning disabilities, autism or ADHD
• 27 May 2-4pm for people with personal experience of hearing or sight loss or an experience of living with a physical disability 

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 March 2025, the group discussed our priorities for the next year, theming the sessions around "Making it Real".  

We are continuing to promote the ‘experience survey’ in 2023/24 we received 120 surveys and we would ultimately like to achieve 300 a year so its comparable with the uptake of our postal surveys.

The results so far are showing broadly very positive experience of those people who access our support or the people who care for them having a positive experience. Feedback has included being complimentary about our support and how we have worked to build a rapport and connection with people and a great proportion of people wanting to get involved in some way in the work of Adult Social Care (over 1300 people now signed up to this bulletin).

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 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.  

From 1 July 2024, we introduced a new online safeguarding experience survey  as our standard approach to seeking feedback from people about their safeguarding experience. This new process has replaced the ‘My Safeguarding Experience’ forms. 

At the end of the safeguarding enquiry process, the social worker will have a discussion with you and share the experience survey, giving you options on how you would prefer to give feedback.

You can complete the survey yourself, or with the support of the social worker.  If you would prefer to speak with someone independent, someone from the Safeguarding Adults Team or Coventry Safeguarding Adults Board can support.  A public information leaflet has been developed that outlines and explains the process.

Introducing Bridgit Care

Bridgit is an information tool that helps carers navigate caring, covering a range of subjects from self-help, to how to access support.  Carers can also make a simple and quick referral to the Carers Trust through the app.  Check out Bridgit Care and what is has to offer.

Bridgit is one of 4 projects under the Accelerated Reform Fund, a fund which aims to improve the use of innovation within Adult Social Care.  

My Time - arriving soon in Coventry 

An exciting new project is coming to Coventry aimed at improving the wellbeing of carers across the city.  My Time, a scheme set up in Liverpool works with local businesses, hoteliers, recreational facilities to form partnerships that offer free opportunities for carers to take breaks.  

It might be an afternoon tea, a night in a hotel, a group event, a day at a spa.  The scheme looks to match carers with the right break for them and in return will work with local businesses to understand the needs of carers and how they can support their workforce.  The scheme is currently working to secure some local opportunities and soon will be live to support carers across the city.  This is a two year project as part of the Accelerated Reform Fund.  

The Carers Trust Heart of England are supporting the project.

For more information MyTime for Carers | Giving Carers The Break They Deserve