Staff Views
Staff views
As part of our self-assessment process, in June 2023 we invited all staff in the service to share their views on how we are performing in relation to the CQC quality statements. In total, 219 staff responded and some of the findings from the survey are included throughout our self-assessment. Further staff engagement will take place in Autumn, and the self-assessment will be updated following the analysis of those sessions.
Having experienced a high turnover of senior leadership in previous years, acknowledged in the narrative used by staff and partners reflecting on previous relationships and behaviours and its impact upon the service, there is now a recognition that the current leadership, which has been in place for over two years, is enabling ongoing culture change. This in part through the appointment of an experienced permanent Director and the creation of new Assistant Director roles. Structures have also been realigned to ensure we have clear lines of accountability and that officers across the directorate sit within the relevant specialist area.
Further to this, the development of the strategy has given us valuable insight on customer experience, what is important and what people want from their care and support going forward, which has enabled us to develop our annual Adults and Health Business Plan, to set out how we will deliver the priorities in our strategy and achieve the outcomes in Our Council Plan.
Our business plan sets out our key activities, including those as part of our improvement programme, as illustrated in the diagram above. The improvement programme is being overseen by the Assistant Director of Improvement & Assurance and this oversight will ensure that we remain on track and keep the pace needed on our improvement journey.
Overarching activities including co-production; assurance and improvement; managing our budget; and equality, diversity, and inclusion form part of all these activities, which are grouped as follows:
Practice
We continue to embed a strength-based approach to practice through a broad range of development initiatives supported by the implementation of a Resource Allocation System (RAS) and carrying out our duties under the Care Act 2014. Dedicated review teams will continue to ensure that our strategic objectives are being fulfilled.
New protocols for the transition pathway between children's and adults social care have been jointly developed in conjunction with colleagues in Education and Children’s Social Care and work is underway to embed these new ways of working into operational practice.
Service Improvement
Having the time to understand and map our current services and customer journey has been crucial and has identified areas for improvement. Business analysis completed to date and the voices of local people who developed the adult social care strategy, will inform our approach to co-designing care pathways with customers, carers and staff, utilising the co-production toolkit we have previously developed which has been adopted as best practice.
Commissioning
As a core enabler to excellent adult social care services, we have revised our commissioning team structure, which continues to be embedded, including staff skills development. Work will focus on the development of new commissioning strategies and more modern, cost-effective models of commissioning such as individual service funds, as well as building on the Market Sustainability Plan and continuing to shape, manage, and support the care market. Existing S75 agreements continue to be reviewed in partnership with our health colleagues, to ensure the arrangements will deliver the best outcomes for our customers.
Workforce
Our workforce plan will evolve to meet the challenges we face. We work with our partners to develop innovative plans for attracting, developing, and retaining the skills and talent we need. Our plan outlines our approach to ensuring our workforce best supports the delivery of our adult social care strategy. Through embedding a strengths-based approach we create a supportive and trusting working environment that empowers our workforce to meet expectations and deliver services in the way our customers need. We are investing in a programme to develop our leaders and in particular our wider commissioning workforce.
Working in partnership (Health)
The West Sussex Health and Care Partnership brings together key local health and care partner organisations including NHS Trusts, Primary Care, and Public Health to work collaboratively at ‘Place’ to deliver the objectives of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Adult Social Care Strategy, and the Sussex-wide Integrated Care Strategy, Improving Lives Together, through a place-based focus on the Shared Delivery Plan.
This supports the delivery of our locally agreed plans and programmes of transformation for the recovery, stabilisation and future sustainability of our health and care system. We work together as a system to ensure a focus on population health and prevention, and deliver high quality, joined-up care, and improved health outcomes, through integrated operational models such as Local Community Networks that enable this for the population in West Sussex. The four priority areas for the Integrated Care System (ICS) delivery plan are:
- Long-term improvement priorities
- Immediate improvement priorities
- Continuous improvement areas
- Health and Wellbeing strategies and place-based partnerships
Locally in West Sussex we have continued to have a focus on developing a community-lead approach to health and wellbeing, continuing to support our district and borough-level Local Community Networks. These are an important foundation for the development of ‘Integrated Community Teams’ which are the Sussex ICS design for neighbourhood care models.
Our Place-based Health and Care Partnership has continued to develop, with the three purposes of tackling health inequality, integrating services, and delivering transformation together.
We have developed two key programmes of work for Adult Social Care to deliver in Partnership with the NHS:
- Improving Hospital Discharge
- Improving Intermediate Care Services
Both programmes have been developed as priorities based upon local evidence as well as feedback from peer-review processes.