Leadership
This theme is about how we ensure we appropriately manage our support and services, ensuring that we are always learning and improving.
Governance, management and sustainability
Performance matters
In Adult Social Care we believe performance management is everybody’s business and we seek to understand how well our services are doing, checking impact, outcomes, and learning from what we find to guide the development of our services.
We need to ensure all our staff are clear in their responsibilities for performance management and quality, as we recognise we are publicly accountable for quality, performance and the need to be transparent on how we can work together to improve outcomes for adults and their carers. This approach includes regular performance reporting and analysis of information and data. Performance data which focuses on critical areas and ensures there are no gaps in our understanding of how we are operating. Some of this data and analysis can be found earlier in the Annual Report on pages 10 to 14.
Through the Performance and Insight Team we have developed data and information dashboards to enable accessible and accurate data and information to be produced which can be used by staff and managers. These are utilised to inform planning and how we use resources.
Our approach is underpinned by policies, standards and guidance which together support the design and delivery of effective services. These include national performance frameworks (Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework - ASCOF), statutory information returns, local policies, procedures and standards.
National indicators include a need to focus on enhancing the quality of life for people with care and support needs, delaying and reducing the need for care and support, ensuring that people have a positive experience of care and support, and that people are safe.
We identified from our surveys that people said they found it hard to find information about Adult Social Care which led to us reviewing how we provide information.
In the survey for adults with care and support needs for 2024 to 2025 ‘Ease of finding information’, improved significantly by 8.2% to 73.5%, reversing last year's decline and making it one of the top-performing indicators!
We continue to explore ways in which we can consider the quality of our services and better understand the experience of those accessing support. In 2024 we created a Quality and Experience Group chaired by our Adults Principal Social Worker which receives and review findings from the range of activities providing any feedback and insights into the quality of support and experiences of those accessing Adult Social Care.
We have processes in place to ensure the collation of practice learning and actions taken via a ‘Practice Development, Learning and Improvement Framework’. This involves being systematic in our process of identifying organisational wide learning, areas of improvement and sharing best practice across the organisation. We capture our learning (best practice and areas for development) in a centralised database.
We have undertaken a number of activities which have included:
- reviewed our 'ASC Offer', providing visibility on approach, commitments and access to practical information and key contacts
- reviewed and improved the accessibility of our Adult Social Care Webpage information following engagement.
- increased the number of information leaflets produced and those available in easy read format
- ensured all information leaflets, identify availability to request, in the six main languages used in Coventry (Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, Romanian and Tigrinya) and translated more information that are available on our webpages.
- created ‘Contact Us’ posters and staff calling cards
- continued to undertake scheduled community engagement events during course of the year
- continue to produce electronic newsletters which members of the public are able to subscribe to
Learning, Improvement and Innovation
Using Digital Technology - Technology Enabled Care (TEC)
Sheridan, a Community Case Worker from Adult Social Care talks about how she is promoting Digital Technology in her work with people.
The use of digital technology in Coventry has been beneficial for lots of people I have worked with. I was working with Betty, as her balance was becoming an issue. Betty is a 99-year-old woman who lives independently in her own home and she needed a morning call to support her including putting on a back brace. Betty also expressed her nervousness about living alone, saying ‘I feel vulnerable’.
When visiting Betty, I took with me the copy of the DigiTech catalogue, we sat together and discussed each device in length, we agreed I would refer her for the Careium Falls Wearable (a wearable personal alarm in case of falls) and an Alcove Video Doorbell paired with the Alexa Show (a smart speaker with a screen), this would enable her to identify who is at her front door.
The equipment was ordered and after 4 weeks had passed I visited Betty again to check in on how she was getting on with the equipment.
Betty said:
"I am pleased about the pendant alarm, it has given me more confidence with moving around my home with the knowledge if I were to fall it will detect it and call for help. I am now using my back garden a lot which is of great pleasure to me, I like to potter around in the sun without fear, earlier this year I fell and had to scream for a neighbour to call for help, now although I am still being careful, I feel better."
"Before you told me about the alarm, I felt scared to move around, I had lost my confidence and felt trapped in my own home."
"The doorbell was a little difficult to get my head around but once I was shown a few times I feel like I have gotten the hang of it! Which is amazing for a 99-year old!"
The use of the smart home devices and the wearable device has improved Betty’s quality of life and safety.
Since October 2024 Coventry City Council (CCC) has been engaged in a regional Technology Enabled Care (TEC) Pilot, funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, Wolverhampton City combined authority.
TEC refers to the delivery of care that meets identified social care needs with the assistance of technology. For example, the provision of remote care-calls through video calls, the use of smart technologies to provide prompts and reminders around self-care or the use of geo-tracking wearables that allow access to a community with remote monitoring.
Louise Hay, Head of Business Systems and Improvement said:
"This programme of innovation has given huge opportunities for learning how TEC can support people to live independently and safely. Over 200 people have benefited from over 800 pieces of technology and the impact of this on quality of life has been significant. We will continue to explore opportunities to incorporate the use of TEC into the care and support provided to adults in the city and build on the learning and development achieved to date.”
Accelerated Reform Fund Projects for Adult Social Care
In March 2024 as part of a national initiative to drive innovation in Adult Social Care Coventry and Warwickshire received 2-year funding from the Department of Health and Social Care, called the ‘Accelerated Reform Fund’.
The main aim of the Accelerated Reform Fund is to address barriers to adopting innovative practice and build capacity and capability in Adult Social Care, there is a particular focus on supporting carers as part of the initiative.
The project involved working across the Integrated Care Board with our colleagues in Warwickshire, deciding upon the projects we wanted to explore based on what people have told us and feedback we have received.
In Coventry we’ve launched the following projects;
Bridgit Care
Bridgit Care is an online, easy to navigate self-help tool for carers, that can be accessed day and night. The tool has helpful modules that help people navigate different areas of support specific to their caring role and populates a self-help plan.
Shared Lives – Supporting Recruitment
There are many wonderful examples of how Shared Lives makes a difference to people’s lives but recruiting new Shared Lives can prove challenging. We used funding to develop the marketing of Shared Lives and look at how we recruit and get Shared Lives carers on board. This included making a short video, launching a bus back campaign and using radio adverts.
My Time
My Time is a project run by a Liverpool based charity called Local Solutions, they work with hoteliers, leisure services and local businesses to secure a range of different breaks for carers to access. A range of breaks are now available from local businesses, including Coombe Abbey, the Slug and Lettuce and Historic Coventry.
Carer Support at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW)
Through our feedback from carers we recognised how important the right support was whilst in hospital, preparing for a discharge and making sure there is good access to information and advice. The additional funding has meant we are able to fund an additional carer hospital liaison worker, to support and identify carers whilst in hospital. We hope this will mean earlier access to support and better identification of carers in the hospital setting.
What next?
All projects are now live and Coventry residents will now benefit from the support. We will continue to work our Accelerated Reform Partners to evaluate the impact that they have on people’s lives.
Co-production and Engagement
Improvement through continuous learning is embedded within how we do our work but one of most important ways we learn is by listening to, involving and engaging with those who have ‘lived experience’.
In Adult Social Care we place adults and their carers at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to ensuring that people with care and support needs and their carers can be equal partners in planning and shaping future developments in Adult Social Care. But we know we’ve still got some way to go with this.
Behind the scenes we’ve been continuing working hard to try and develop our own approach to co-production and ensuring that we are involving people in the development of services, something as simple as ensuring we get feedback along people’s journeys, to being part of recruitment decisions to helping shape and create new services.
We have developed the ‘Engagement, Involvement and Co-production Our Approach’, a document which outlines our key commitments to making this happen. We want to ensure that the involvement of people with care and support needs and carers becomes standard practice.
We have been looking at any barriers that might exist to involvement and have produced a policy for reimbursement of expenses and fees for participation.
We are also continuing to seek feedback from people accessing our support via our Experience Survey which also asks if people want to receive more information about Adult Social Care and ‘get involved’, growing the group of people we can engage with. It also asks people for one change or improvement they would like to make to the support they have or are receiving. We read all of these, contact people if they need support and take action on any themes.
In 2024 we also introduced 2 new experience surveys;
- a Safeguarding Experience Survey, capturing people’s experience of Section 42 safeguarding enquiries
- a Direct Payments Experience Survey, seeking to find out more about what it’s like receiving a Direct Payment in Coventry, what’s working well. things people may like to see changed and to get involved in a peer group. A Direct Payment Strategy has been informed by feedback from people receiving Direct Payments including direct quotes from people identifying how Direct Payments help and what difference they make
We want to continue to grow the number people who want to be involved and hear their views. We produce regular bulletins or newsletters for people interested in Adult Social Care which includes updates on developments and details of forthcoming opportunities for getting involved. 2,108 people are receiving our Adults Bulletin and 4,334 people our Carers bulletin. If you want to be added to our newsletter circulation list, please let us know, by subscribing yourself.
Where we have acted on feedback, will share this on our webpages via a ‘We asked, you said, we did’ page.
We have a live demographic dashboard which tells us who is accessing adult social care compared to the city population and we are using this information to inform our approaches. We have updated all our public information which identifies that they can be made available in 6 main languages used in Coventry – Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, Romanian and Tigrinya.
We have also produced our safeguarding posters in these languages alongside specific information about safeguarding in Arabic as this is one of the most requested languages for translation and more recently our Direct Payments leaflets into Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic and Gujarati.
In 2022 we started to hold open days, inviting people to come and hear more about Adult Social Care and get involved. We have continued to hold events through 2024 to 2025. This year we’ve held 2 sessions at the Dementia Hub and a transitions session at the Cheylesmore Community Hub.
We have also attended partnership sessions this year this included a session at the Muslim Resource Centre (Health and Wellbeing Event), Penderels Direct Payment Event and events during carers week. Also ‘Pop ups’ as we like to call them. The pop-up events help us speak to a wide range of people, people that might not be receiving Adults Social Care, might not have heard of our support and people who self-fund their care.
We've made sure we have a wide range of staff, such as occupational therapists, social workers and always a popular one, the financial assessments team.
What’s next and looking forward
We recognise that there is always more to do, and that learning is an ongoing process. We want to get people more involved in the commissioning of services and also ensure information gets to those who need it most.
Adult Social Care Stakeholder Group
The work of Adult Social Care continues to be supported by our Stakeholder Group, who meet regularly to discuss any updates and influence the improvements of the service. The group is made up of Coventry residents who are experienced in how services work.
June the groups co-chair said: "The stakeholder group is a friendly group of people that live in Coventry with different experiences of health and social care, whether from their own personal experience or the people who they support and care for, there are also voluntary groups and other professionals that attend. We meet at alternate months to discuss any updates and be given an opportunity where we can influence the improvement of services. As I am someone who has worked in the community and Hospital for many years, I also care for several people, I know how important it is that you get the right information at the right time, as I attend the group, I can bring my experience and knowledge to improve services for the people of Coventry".
To find out more about Getting Involved you can access the webpage.