The challenge
Our client, a local council, had identified an extensive backlog of annual reviews for people with learning disabilities in supported living settings.
To clear this backlog, the council needed a partner who could manage teams of social workers to provide support to the authority.
The solution
Consultancy+, which is part of Reed Talent Solutions, met with the local authority to establish a project plan as to how we could support with clearing this backlog. We were initially commissioned for a six-month period.
Following this, we identified an experienced project manager who was a qualified social worker and had experience managing teams of social workers against key deliverables to lead the project.
Working with the project manager and the local authority, we drafted a statement of work (SoW) highlighting the main objectives for the team and the required outcomes of the project.
We developed a mobilisation plan which included an induction session for the team, covering IT training and integration within the wider service. Once the team were up and running, we had regular check-in sessions with the local authority to ensure that we were effectively delivering the project and meeting our targets.
One of our project managers described a live example from the project, which sums up how it worked: “A provider requested additional hours on the basis that the people supported were getting older and therefore had higher support needs. When we looked into the support needs of all three people, we assessed that they had been receiving excessive allocations of provision over a number of years.
“By looking in depth at the support plans, previous assessments, daily notes and activity planners, we found that the one-to-one activities that they took part in had significantly reduced - in accordance with the wishes of the people supported.
“We also found that they had historically been allocated additional hours for lots of weekends away and trips out that exceeded their individual and collective level of assessed need, and had not been happening for a significant period of time.
“The reviewing social worker, supported in discussion by her manager, liaised with the provider and the reviewee's independent advocate, and assessed that shared hours could be realigned and a significant reduction in one-to-one hours and ad hoc contingency hours took place.”
The results
During the first year of operations, the team was allocated a principal cohort of 373 annual reviews; all of which have now been completed. This meant the council met the Care Act 2014 requirements in relation to reviewing cases of vulnerable adults.
The team has also taken part in three additional projects that involved reviewing support arrangements and updating support plans of an additional 57 people, as well as carrying out ad-hoc reviews to assist the local authority in responding to requests submitted via its duty services.
By carrying out thorough, evidence-based reviews, the team has enabled the council to fulfil its obligation to complete annual reviews of adults with learning disabilities accessing supported living services, as well as financial year end savings of more than £490,000 in its first year of practice.
The team has been commissioned to continue its work for a further three months, with our contract being extended for the third time.
Our work with the local authority has enhanced its capacity to carry out its duty in relation to reviewing reporting changes in need for vulnerable adults, thus protecting the workload of existing social work teams and enabling a swifter response for those people who are supported and their support providers.
It has also relieved the council’s social work teams of having to complete annual reviews and re-assessments, reducing problems of allocation for team managers. By carrying out thorough, evidence-based reviews, we have also enabled the council to realise significant savings.
On top of this, the local authority has been able to draw on our teams’ experience, gained from working alongside other councils. This has allowed the service to evaluate current practice and processes and improve or change them if deemed necessary.
Find out more about our Statement of Work programmes, or get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
