|
20 October 2023
 This is the beginning of a series of briefings about the work underway in the Community Services Programme at Devon County Council. Each release will provide an update on programme progress, opportunities for you to get involved and updates on any other developments as they evolve.
Each issue will focus on a programme area as well as updating on the latest news and opportunities to get involved in this issue …
- Community Services Programme: an introduction
- Focus – Community Services Recommissioning Roadmap and outcomes
- Co-Design
- Meet the team
Community Services Programme: an introduction
The Community Services Programme was set up in 2022 with the intention of providing a structured framework to co-ordinate, communicate, align, and manage all Community Services change activity and projects whilst incorporating business-as-usual activities.
The programme includes the following community services and is being delivered in partnership with NHS Devon and Devon Partnership Trust.
- Personal Care Services
- Day Services
- Community Enabling Services
- Personal Assistants
- Live in Care
- Reablement / enablement / short term services
This issue’s focus: Community Services Recommissioning Roadmap
January 2023 saw the launch of Devon County Council and partners commissioning roadmap for Community Services and stage 1 the community services review: The review started from a point of change and pressure within the community services market:
|
Contracts -
- Exit from Living Well at Home Contract (personal/ domiciliary care)
- Exit from Supporting Independence (Day and enabling services)
- Spot Contracted market –interim measure with expectation
|
|
 |
|
Market conditions - The market providing community-based support has changed throughout and since the pandemic. There has been, until recently, a huge pressure recruiting and retaining an effective workforce which caused issues with capacity, but we have seen a significant shift in capacity, mainly attributable to recruitment from overseas. We will continue to work with providers as we adapt to the new market and workforce position.
|
|
 |
|
Changes in Legislation – Adult Social Care Reform with a greater emphasis on creating sustainable markets.
Financial Recovery
New Devon County Council Strategies Living Well, Ageing Well and Caring Well
Stage 1 was the beginning of our commissioning journey, gathering the information about our current purchasing (Community Based Review) and gathering stakeholder analysis and feedback.
We launched the programme activity by disseminating a survey and engaging with our stakeholders on what does and does not work well currently; we are keen for our stakeholders to collaborate with us on the design of our commissioning approach. May 2023 saw the end of the initial discovery stage with the results of Community Based Review and our analysis of stakeholder feedback and involvement, you can see stage 1 report here.
|
|
 |
Key themes from the survey:
We are now starting stage 2 - Taking the learning and themes from Stage 1 and:
- Establishing Co-production mechanisms – Co-design group
- Collaborative/ co-design for re-commissioning
- Co-design of reablement / recovery / rehab model within regulated services
- Market Development plan for Personal care
 Co - Design
Devon County Council want those delivering, receiving, and supporting those in receipt of Community Services to take part in the Programme; we’d like to work collaboratively.
To enable this codesign approach, with the support of DCC Involvement Team, we asked for expressions of interest and had an overwhelmingly positive response – THANK YOU! Due to the number of responses, we were not able to include all at this stage, but we anticipate future opportunities to engage and will keep everyone informed as they come up.
We want to ensure that this is a meaningful process, where stakeholders can steer and support how the design process works (who and how we engage and plan the work) and how we design and shape the new services. The Community Services Co-Design Group has representation from Providers, VCS, Service Users and Carers (although using the co-production approach membership, like all decisions, can be adapted by the group).
We had our first meeting on the 3rd October where all members got an overview of the programme and co-production training before deciding, collaboratively, how we will get started and plan our work.
This is a really exciting opportunity to work together in a co-productive way. The second meeting took place on 17th October and we’ll make sure we share plans as they develop as well as opportunities for further participation.
Meet the Team
The Community Services Programme is supported by a wealth of knowledge across the Integrated Health and Social Care System.
- Our operational lead for the programme is Stella Doble (Assistant Director Adult Social Care (Northern Devon))
- Our Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) is Kate Mulford (Interim Sector Lead for Community Services)
We also have a group of people who are helping drive this programme forward from programme management & commissioning who have extensive experience working with the community services sectors and change management projects in these areas. In addition, the programme has support from partner organisations:
- Devon Audit Partnership
- Devon Partnership Trust.
- Devon Integrated care Board.
As well as internal support the community services review is delivering a collaborative commissioning approach enabling stakeholders to be involved in a meaningful way in how we shape the services moving forward. To achieve this, as well as our Co-design group, we have a programme of internal and external engagement events where we can share ideas and shape plans.
Email us at socialcarebusinessrelations-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
|
