Having your say...

• Who are Adult Services?
• Why is it important for us to listen?
  • How do we listen?
  • Who do we listen to?
• What kind of things do people tell us?
• What do we do with the things people tell us about the services they receive personally?
• What happens if you have an individual problem that you want help with?
• How can you make a complaint
• What do we do with the things that people tell us about the way that Adult Services are run?
• What do we do with the things that people tell as that are nothing to do with Adult Services?
• What help and support can we give to help you have your say?
• What other ways are there to have my say?
• How can you get involved

We're listening to you!

In Adult Services we think it's really important to listen to what the people who use our services think. We listen to how we can improve services for people when we discuss their individual care needs but we also listen to groups of service users to find out what general changes we need to make. We listen to groups of service users, carers and members of the public.  Tameside Adult Services has produced a Consultation and Involvement Strategy called Engaging Users in the Planning, Monitoring, Development and Delivery of Services. View the strategy 553.49 KB

Who are Adult Services?

We provide help and support for individuals and families in the community to live independent lives. There are many people who use our services including families, older people, carers, people with learning, physical or sensory disabilities and people with mental health issues.

We work together with health services , carers, service users, voluntary and private organisations to provide social care services that meet people's needs. The support we offer can include many different things, for example: Day Services, Homecare, Residential Care, Meals on Wheels, Equipment and Adaptations.

Why is it important for us to listen?

We want to make sure that our services are good quality and good value for money. We can't do this unless we know what you, the people who use the services, think is important. Your comments can help us to understand what works well and what can be improved.

How do we listen?

We have a Service User Involvement Team whose main job is to organise activities and events which give you a chance to have your say about our services. They organise a number of activities, including:

• Really Important Questions (RIQ) annual conference for older people
• The "Big Chat" days for people with Learning Disabilities
• "Listen Here!" - the annual disability network conference
• Regular forum meetings for groups of older people and disabled people
• Mystery shopper exercises - checking whether services work the way we think the should
• Consultations on individual services and issues where managers have specific questions they want to ask people
• Membership of working groups
• Involvement in contracting and service monitoring
• Involvement in staff recruitment and training.

Who do we listen to?

The main people we listen to are:

• older people
• people with physical disabilities
• people with learning disabilities
• people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing
• blind or partially sighted people
• carers (family and friends)

We also work with Advocacy in MIND to find out what people with mental health difficulties think about our services and with People First Tameside (a service user led organisation for people with Learning Disabilities).

What kind of things do people tell us?

People tell us lots of different things about the services they receive. There are 3 main types of things people tell us:

• things they think should change about the services they receive personally
• things they think should change about the way Adult Services are run for everyone
• problems that are nothing to do with Adult Services (e.g. other Council services)

Sometimes we ask specific questions about services and this information is given in response. Sometimes people tell us about things that they think are important and need to be discussed.

What do we do with the things people tell us about the services they receive personally?

If people are not happy with the services they receive personally, we can:

• refer them to the Adult Assessment and Care Co-ordination Team (AACCT) for re-assessment
• put them in touch with an advocacy service who will help them to make their case to service managers
• put them in touch with the complaints team
• talk to managers about whether the individual's problems might also affect other people

What happens if you have an individual problem you want help with?

We recommend that you contact the Adult Services "Front Door" at Stalybridge. If they are unable to help you, they should be able to advise you who else to contact.

How can you make a complaint?

If you are unhappy with the services you receive, please tell us. This gives us an opportunity to put things right. It also helps us to identify how we can improve the service in the longer term. If a lot of people are having the same problem, we need to look at why this keeps happening. You can tell your Social Worker or their manager what is wrong or you can contact our Complaints Manager. Of course, if you are happy with the service you receive, we would like to hear about this too.

What do we do with the things that people tell us about the way Adult Services are run?

If people make suggestions about how Adult Services can be improved or tell us about a general problem with services, we:

• make sure that the problem or suggestion is written down and passed on to the relevant manager
• arrange for a meeting with the appropriate manager and a group of service users to discuss the issue if we think this will help
• report back to the people who raised the issue to tell them what's going to happen
• check back later to see what changes have been made and how these have improved services.

What do we do with the things people tell us that are nothing to do with Adult Services?

We have very strong links with other departments in Tameside Council and with other organisations (e.g. the NHS etc.). We treat the information people give as confidential, but we feed the main messages into:

• the Tameside Strategic Partnership  - this sets the long term vision for what needs to happen in Tameside and encourages different organisations to work together to make it happen
• important Council policies such as the Disability Equality Scheme
• the Tameside Consultation and Engagement Group - a place where people from different parts of the Council talk about their consultation work and what they need to ask people in the future
• the Joint Planning and Performance Management (Adults Services and Health)
• our other partner organisations.

What help and support can we give to help you to have your say?

We believe that everyone who uses our services has a right to have their voice heard. We know that different people need different types of support to help them to communicate or get involved. We can give support in the following ways:

• help with transport to get to meetings
• information in accessible formats (audio CD, Braille, Easy-Words-and-Pictures, etc)
• language interpreters (including main BME languages and British Sign Language)
• support workers
• communication equipment (e.g. induction loops etc.)

We have an access and expenses policy which tells you about these in more details.

What other ways are there to have my say?

There are a number of other ways you can make your voice heard, including:

• contacting your local councillor
• contacting your MP
• joining or setting up a local group for local people with similar experiences - Tameside Third Sector Coalition  (T3SC) can tell you more about local groups.

How can you get involved?

If you want to tell us what you think or just want to find out more about how you can have your say, please contact one of the User Involvement Team at:

Contact Information
Send us a Message	User Involvement Team Development and Customer Support Unit Rydal House Rydal Avenue Hyde SK14 4QB View local map
0161 366 4326
0161 366 4334
0161 366 4335