Exhibition Boards

Supporting Independence

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Listen Here! 2007 - Working with local disabled people to improve life in Tameside

Aim

To enable disabled people to get their voice heard and to raise the profile of disability in Tameside

• First annual multi-agency Tameside Disability Conference in 2007
• Over 180 delegates, including over 80 local disabled
• Residents with physical, sensory and learning disabilities as well as people with mental health needs
• Set of workshops on topics disabled people had told us were important to them in past consultation
• Multi-agency disability action-plan

Disability Network

• Coordinates engagement activity with disabled people in the borough
• Signposts any issues on to the relevant contact
• Involves different public and voluntary organisations and local disabled people

Tameside and Pension Service Joint Team

• Face to face benefit information and support to older people
• Information Points based in various locations around Tameside
• Home visits where needed
• Works with other partner organisations such as Age Concern Tameside
• Visits over 400 older people a month

The team is now also providing information on the CORA project to all those who might benefit from its support

Customer feedback:

 "We are fully satisfied with the all round standard of service received.  Excellent!  Keep up the good work.  Thanks..."

"I was treated with respect and have been on every occasion that I needed to contact the dept for advice."

"Me and my wife are so grateful... nothing was too much trouble. We are very grateful because we would still have been using our savings to live on.  We did not know about pension credits or housing benefits... I wish to thank *** and yourselves for your time and help you gave me."

In 2006/07 the Joint team assisted with:

• 738 successful claims for Pension Credit worth £33,928 per week
• 558 successful claims for Attendance Allowance worth £28,826 per week
• 367 successful claims for Council Tax Benefit worth £4,662 per week

The combined value of all successful claims for all benefits in 2006/07 was £92,006 per week (equivalent to £4,784,312 per annum)

Homelessness: Peer Education Project

To promote homelessness prevention and to help young people make safer choices if faced with circumstances that can lead to them having to leave home

• Initiated March 2006
• Group of eight young people from Tameside (all with personal experiences of homelessness) went through peer education training
• Training was funded by the CLG’s Homelessness Prevention Grant
• Training delivered by Arts Development Worker - specialises in working with ‘hard to reach‘ groups
• In partnership with Cardboard Citizens, Connexions and Nacro
• Once trained - a week touring eight schools and education projects delivering awareness raising sessions to groups of pupils

Inspiration

• Young people more likely to listen to others of a similar age

What’s next?

• New group of young people are now being recruited to undergo training and to carry on this work in schools with the help of Nacro and Tameside Connexions

Opening Doors for Older People

How Do We Know What Older People Want?

• Really Important Questions Conference (RIQ)
• Tameside Older People’s Advisory Group (TOPAG)
• Better Government for Older People (BGOP)
• Home Care User Surveys
• User/Carer Forums
• Consultation with Community Groups
• Information from Representations
• Citizens' Panel Surveys
• Residents’ Opinion Surveys
• District Assemblies

'Older people have told us that they want to be independent, to live full and active lives and to stay in their own home and their local community for as long as possible'

So What Have We Done About What Older People Told Us? Tameside Older People’s Partnership is Listening!

• Successful bid made to the Department of Health’s Partnerships for Older People’s Projects (POPP) funding for £1.15m
• Tameside local project developed – 'Opening Doors for Older People'
• Aimed at supporting the health well-being and independence of older people
• Through large scale, targeted early intervention, assertive outreach & case finding
• The CORA Check and Support service - a free, confidential, community based Information, Advice and Support service to help older people remain healthy, active and well in their own community - delivered by Volunteers
• Market Development - the development of services to maintain health, well-being and independence of older people

Continuing to Listen

• Use of information to identify needs and gaps in service and inform future service development
• CORA User Reference Group established to help improve the service, and to inform market development
• RIQ 8th Annual Conference prioritised a range of services important for supporting health, well-being and independence

Setting up and Expanding Services in Response to what People are Telling us

• Providing them in new ways
• Closer to where people live
• By a wider range of organisations to improve a person’s choice
• Encouraging older people themselves to work alongside other providers to offer solutions to meet need in their local community

Sustainability

'The Opening Doors for Older People Project provides strategic commissioners and partner organisations with important information and evidence to support a sustainable shift in resources and culture away from a focus on institutionalised and hospital-based crisis care, towards earlier and better targeted interventions for older people within community settings'

Tameside Supporting People Programme

Aims

• To give all local people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing supported housing services that promote independence
• To equip people with the skills and confidence to live independently in the community in any form of tenure either with or without support

Outcomes

• Health and care needs are picked up
• Addressing health risks e.g. drug and alcohol misuse
• Supporting people through a crisis
• Continuing support
• Preventing homelessness or re-offending
• Short term or long term or permanent basis

Supporting People Services are for:

• People with mental health problems
• People with learning disabilities
• Physical or sensory disabilities
• Single homeless people
• Homeless families
• Rough sleepers
• Young people at risk or leaving care
• People with complex needs
• Older people with support needs
• Frail elderly
• Older people with dementia
• Teenage parents
• People who misuse alcohol
• People who misuse drugs
• Women at risk of domestic violence
• Refugees
• Ex-offenders
• Travellers and gypsies

The Access and Information Group

• Involvement of service users ensures information is accessible to all
• Service users involved include older people, people with learning disabilities, homeless people and young people
• Service users produce their own quarterly newsletter

What the Audit Commission said

'We have assessed Tameside Council as providing an excellent programme with excellent prospects for improvement'

'There are a number of examples of services users contributing to the development of the programme, and there are many opportunities to participate at service level'

'Supporting People has made a significant difference to the lives and the choices available to some of the borough’s most vulnerable people'

'User involvement has been meaningful in making the programme more accessible'

'Some of the hardest to reach groups are being accessed so that they can input into service development'

Adult Services: responding to what people say

'We want health and social care information for older people to be all in one place'

• OWL website
• 'Lust for Life' Directory
• ChoicE Shop - helped over 970 people get the help they needed last year

'All relevant information was given. Very pleasant manner – could not have been more helpful.' (Mrs A.W., Audenshaw)

'People from ethnic minority communities don’t understand what support is available or how to contact those who can help us'

• Information outreach worker explains services
• Bi-lingual customer care officers deal with enquiries
• Co-workers support social workers to carry out culturally sensitive assessments
• Maddad Ghar provides culturally appropriate home care

'It’s wonderful to have a Pakistani female worker who can speak Urdu. Now I don’t have to rely on my young daughter.' (Maddad Ghar service user)

'The Carers Centre is hard to get to, particularly for people who don’t drive'

• Carers Centre relocated to middle of Ashton, next to the Market Place and Bus Station
• Drop–in figures have increased by more than 100% since the move in March this year

'The Carers Centre is my safety net & has never let me down.’ (L.H. Hyde)

Adult Services: Physical and Sensory Disabilities

• Participation in working groups
• Support to external consultation
• Mystery shopper and service evaluation projects

Really Important Questions (RIQ) Network

• Consultation and Involvement Network
• For people aged 50+
• Health, Social Care and Quality of Life Issues
• 8th Annual R.I.Q Conference October 2007 - 150 older delegates
• Quarterly Forum Meetings - 60 people regularly attend
• R.I.Q representatives on key committees/working groups
• R.I.Q representatives training/involved in staff training
• R.I.Q involvement in contracting/inspection process
• R.I.Q Conference Report
• R.I.Q updates to all members
• R.I.A Answers feedback report

R.I.Q Forum 2006/7 Issues

• Falls prevention
• POPPs project
• Choose and book system
• Environmental maintenance
• Dignity in care
• Leisure and social opportunities
• Cay care for older people

‘I’ve seen a vast improvement in Tameside over the past 10 years and the care for the elderly has improved’(Quote from conference delegate)

Adult Services - Learning Disabilities

'We listen to what our customers want'

‘Services need to take more account of what learning disabled people want to achieve as individuals’

• Person centred planning
• One-page profiles
• Person centred living descriptions
• Essential lifestyle plans

‘Adults with a learning disability need more accessible information about personal relationships and sexuality. They want a safe place to learn and share experiences with others’

• Information and discussion group provided at People First

‘Service users need more accessible ways to feed back about the quality of the service’

• Quality Day
• Video production
• ‘Big Brother' diary room

‘No culturally appropriate services for young Asian women with a learning disability’

• Specialist development worker appointed

'Older carers of adults with learning disabilities are concerned about how they will cope as their own health fails’

• Development worker appointed
• Works with families to allay fears
• Develops care plans
• 92 families registered to date

'We change the way our service is delivered'