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Dear colleagues,
My name is Dave Joyce - I am the new head of safeguarding, mental health and learning disability, and I am pleased to be introducing the ASC staff newsletter this month.
I have been in social care for more than 30 years now! I trained as a social worker, practice educator and best interest assessor and have specialised in: homelessness, supported housing, substance misuse and mental health services.
I'm passionate about empowering service users to reach their full potential, and making sure all practitioners are able to do this with the people they work with. I'm delighted that our ASC strategy supports these values and 'holds us to account for the way we work with our citizens and with each other'. I believe that while we are all fallible and won't always get it right, our commitment to CPD is essential in order to do our best and stay true to the values that underpin our work, and that we must treat each other with the same respect and dignity we have for our service users. Our robust partnerships will be crucial as we enter the world of integrated care systems (ICS).
You may not be aware that the name of my old service has recently changed. What was previously known as Older People and Physical Disabilities (OPPD) is now called Adults Care and Support. This is to better represent the communities we support, which includes those with complex needs like homelessness, substance misuse and those with acquired brain injuries. If you have OPPD in your email signature please do change it to Adults Care and Support and advise colleagues to do the same.
I have been in my new role since November 2021 and appreciate support and guidance from colleagues as I learn more every day. I am looking forward to working with you all as we continue to provide the best possible care and support to the people of Portsmouth.
Dave Joyce
Head of safeguarding, mental health and learning disability
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Pulse survey follow-up
Marijke Cochrane will be conducting 1:1 interviews as a follow-up to the Pulse survey
Thank you to everyone who took part in the council-wide 'Pulse survey' last November.
We are now going to do a follow-up survey just for adult social care to help us make the survey more meaningful for our directorate.
Informal, confidential conversations will be carried out in March, with a view of putting together recommendations for better supporting you and your teams.
We are especially keen to talk to those who didn't complete the original Pulse survey, so that their experiences can be captured.
If you would be interested in taking part, please contact marijke.cochrane@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
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We have two new project managers, who will be working on some important projects for adult social care. Kaye and John introduce themselves below.
Kaye Taylor-Ryall
Hello, my name is Kaye Taylor-Ryall and after a few years away honing my potential in the wider world, I am excited to re-join Portsmouth City Council to help deliver a wide range of projects to meet the goals of the adult social care strategy.
I like to think I know a lot about how to organise projects, but no one knows adult services better than you all and, with your help and support, I know we can achieve some good things together.
A bit about me…
- I worked for Portsmouth City Council for many years in various business support, IT, and training roles, focusing on supporting social care and social workers
- I have worked in various sectors, including: higher education, local government, education and the NHS, and have built a career leading and delivering a variety of complex technical and business change projects and programmes of work
- I love taking complex ideas and strategic aims and using the right project management capabilities and standards to help identify and implement brilliant solutions for the people we serve
- My focus will be on the technical aspects of improving data and systems - boring to some but I truly believe that data represents the people we serve - good quality, accurate data is critical to finding better ways to serve the people of Portsmouth
- Outside of work, I am a proud Mum to three sons, an owner of two exceptionally beautiful Whippets, I love learning and have recently completed a Masters degree
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John Hayter
Hello, I am John Hayter. I've been working in social care services for over 25 years now and started off in the 'front-line', assessing adults for services and equipment. I moved into systems and performance management as I had an interest in improving processes and developing tools to support staff. I have implemented many projects over the years and have developed a particular interest in supporting staff and services with inspections and through service changes.
I live in Southsea, and away from work I enjoy walking along the seafront and going to watch Pompey play at Fratton Park with my 6-year-old son - who keeps me very busy!
I am looking forward to working with you all in adult social care - if you have any questions about my role and my work, please don't hesitate to ask!
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👍 Praise for complaints manager
We are delighted to share this positive feedback from a resident in praise of John Thomas, complaints manager. Well done, John.
I would like to thank John Thomas, complaints manager. John took the time to listen to my concerns and took ownership of this. He escalated my concerns to the appropriate person in a timely manner and emailed my daughter after our discussion which resulted in a positive outcome. I would like to compliment John on his professional approach to handling my concerns.
It is not always about the winning that restores your faith in humanity but how your complaint is handled and whether you feel like you have been treated with honesty and respect. John Thomas certainly took all my concerns on board and treated me with the utmost respect. Thank you, John.
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New mental health information hub
 A new learning hub called 'MindEd' has been launched, to equip professionals with evidenced-based information on mental health issues relating to children, young people, adults and older people.
The hub includes Health Education England's catalogue of content, plus curated material from other trusted organisations. Over 500 free e-learning sessions are available.
You can find out more and access the hub at the link below.
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Andy met with colleagues from the approved mental health professionals (AMHP) team this month.
A variety of topics were discussed, which included:
- Balance between home and office working, ensuring that there is space for colleagues to work in the office if they need to
- Discharge to assess (D2A) as a long-term aspiration, to provide space for people being discharged from hospital to make ongoing decisions and receive some reablement support to help them maximise independent living skills
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) referrals have moved from Queen Alexandra Hospital to Southsea Unit - there's an advantage to being able to review SystmOne recordings, to understand the need and whether people will be moving on from the unit, to determine the need for a DoLS
- Potential risks of overcapacity for the care home sector - Andy discussed plans to refresh the sustainable care strategy, understanding which providers may be at risk and working with providers to mitigate and manage that risk
- Money available to the social care sector - Andy discussed the fair cost of care exercise, the cap on care costs, and the funds allocated through the people at the heart of care White Paper. Andy agreed to share summary briefings with staff
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Could you be a champion for learning and development?
The job of an learning and development champion is to pass on learning and development requests from their teams and to promote training, CPD and apprenticeship opportunities.
Launched in August 2020, it aims to be representative of the whole directorate. Champions meet quarterly to discuss learning and development requests from their teams and feedback on upcoming learning and development opportunities.
Robert Jacob, champion for central team, said:
"It's really useful to advocate for our team where we have identified gaps in our knowledge.
"We worked with learning and development, and Sharon Smith, to commission personality disorder training, which gave us a greater understanding of the particular challenges of working with this client group."
Robert's team has a monthly CPD meeting led by one of his team with a focus on a different topic each time. They have covered topic including: transition, cuckooing, the mental health act, autism, cultural competency, difficult-to-engage service-users, and strength-based practice.
The sessions help to strengthen team relationships, and give staff the chance to discuss past cases that either went well or could be dealt with differently.
Sharon Smith, principal social worker, said:
"The ASC Champions are a real asset in identifying the L&D needs of the services and influencing the commissioning of training and CPD opportunities for ASC teams."
If you are interested in getting involved, talk to your manager about volunteering or speak to Tina West (ASC learning and development lead) or Sharon Smith (principal social worker).
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Introducing the community mental health framework
Dave Joyce - head of safeguarding, mental health and learning disability
The community mental health framework aims to utilise the skills and experience of statutory and community and voluntary sector (CVS), and experts by experience, to close the gap between primary and secondary services and ensure there is 'no wrong door' when someone needs support with their mental health.
Published back in September 2019 by NHS England, the framework is the largest mental health priority area across the national mental health programme. Its aim is to achieve well-resourced, transformed community-based services, which can keep people well in their homes and communities, reducing avoidable pressures on crisis and acute services. It is supported by a three-year funding plan from NHS England to ensure staff resource across the system to meets the requirements of a fully integrated service.
Given the right support, individuals and groups can embrace a strength-based approach and start to trust in their personal and community assets and capacity to achieve recovery outcomes beyond services. PCC and Solent NHS Trust work closely with Solent Mind, as well as Pushing Change and SHIFT peer-led communities, as well as a range of other CVS agencies. For many with substance misuse and mental health needs, peer support within and beyond services has been more effective in achieving recovery outcomes than traditional health and social care service delivery.
The roll-out of the framework was delayed due to the pandemic but we are now coming to the end of the first year, during which we have held 'discovery' events to find out what people think of current services and what they consider to be important for newly redesigned services. Design workshops are due to start in April, with a redesigned pilot beginning in the summer. HIVE Portsmouth are developing an 'experts by experience' network to help shape and influence all the design work. The latest updates on the programme can be found on the Health and Care Portsmouth website.
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Safeguarding adults in the coming year
Alison Lawrence, safeguarding adults board manager
The Portsmouth safeguarding adults board (PSAB) has just published its new strategic plan and action plan for 2022-23. Here are some of the highlights.
A key priority for the coming year is to engage more effectively with our service users, carers and communities, including people from groups we have not always engaged with in the past, such as homeless adults and adults who misuse substances.
We are also focusing on building a competent, confident workforce, by supporting professionals from different agencies to work together - we want to promote the use of the multi-agency risk (MARM) framework, strengthen supervision, and provide more opportunities for multi-agency training and sharing of good practice.
We have an exciting and ambitious programme of work for the next 12 months, including setting up a new engagement subgroup led by Dave Joyce, launching a safeguarding newsletter, and holding a safeguarding conference in September.
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The council's plans for culture, leisure and regulatory services
The new business plan for the council's culture, leisure and regulatory services was approved this month.
You are encouraged to have a quick skim and find out about all of the projects and activities planned across the city this year.
As well as all of our partnership working with other health and care organisations in adult social care, we also work across council services - our work feeds in theirs and vice versa.
And that's why this business plan as well all of the culture and leisure activities also includes several of our priorities: 'developing links with the community and voluntary sector', 'keeping residents safe in the performance of our statutory duties' and 'ensure legislative changes are reflected in practice by our statutory service's.
You can view the plan on a page or the full business plan document.
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Allowing ourselves to feel uncomfortably comfortable about sex
I was delighted to attend an event at the Guildhall showcasing the work of social work BSC and MSC Students around co-production.
One particular project made a big impression on me. Students from the University of Portsmouth had worked with the social work inclusion group (SWIG). One of the students spoke about the discovery of an unconscious bias he held. He explained that when the issue came up he felt an immediate aversion to the subject and was unsure whether he could entertain the conversation. It was the subject of sex, more specifically the sexual needs of people with learning difficulties and disabilities.
We have taboos about talking about sex in our society in general, but even in education I have seen how the frustration, lack of communication and general ignorance around sex as a need can lead to additional problems - problematic behaviours like inappropriate gestures, speech, difficulty engaging with others, and even aggression. The student explained that under Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, sex is often overlooked in our thinking. He realised he needed to address his preconceptions and, difficult as it may be, persevere with the conversation. He found that in the end, he gained greater understanding, with which came a reduction in the fear or dread of broaching this subject, as well as knowledge of how to respond in a difficult situation.
Co-production can sometimes feel uncomfortable; conversations may come up that we didn't realise were on the table, it can make us realise where we have gaps, or can even be a trigger for our own experiences. It can force a level of self-reflection that knocks us back for a second. In our busy work life and maintaining professional boundaries we may feel we don't have time or space (physically, intellectually, or emotionally) to address these responses. It is something that I have come across on occasion and something I am interested to develop.
I think the key is that we will always be challenged in life, and this can be a good thing at times. What we must remember to do is allow time to reflect and allow conversations, when they are appropriate, even if they are uncomfortable.
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As always, please let us know what you think of this newsletter. What did you like or not like? What would you like to see featured next time? This is your newsletter and we want it to be shaped by you. Get in touch at involvedsocialcare@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
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