location Black Country Partnership for Care

learningtogether toprogressInLAWS

backgroundadult services in the black country

This project was undertaken with the four metropolitan district councils in the Black Country:

Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. These four local authorities have a history of

working together on a range of issues in adult social care at directors of adult social care (DASS)

and workforce lead level, through the Black Country Partnership for Care (BCPC) which was

established in 2002. The partnership brings together the expertise of Skills for Care, health and

social care employers, including voluntary and community organisations, training providers,

Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the Black Country local authority action group to address the

development of the social care workforce across the whole sector in the Black Country.

There are different models of service delivery in each of the four local authorities. Each has a

common boundary with its Primary Care Trust area. A number of the private voluntary and

independent (PVI) care provider businesses contract with more than one of the local authorities.

Annual performance assessments (2009) – Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton are all

performing well. Work with the Black Country Partnership for Care took place between August

2009 and February 2010.

This project was key to developing closer

relationships with colleagues in service

commissioning and finance which will help to

progress InLAWS further. It was also helpful

to see how some of the other authorities

across the Black Country were

approaching Putting People Firstand workforce issuesAndrea Pope-Smith, Director of Adult Servicesand Health, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

drivers for changeDudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton

local authorities were all in the process of

transforming adult social care across their local

areas and considering how to tackle the

associated workforce issues. Workforce leads,

with support from their DASS, were committed

to using the strong relationships built through

BCPC to progress adoption of the InLAWS

approach in their own local authorities and

facilitate the sharing of adult social care

workforce data across the Black Country

partnership. It was felt that learning and working

together in this way would help each party meet

the requirements of Putting People First more

effectively and ultimately improve service

delivery in adult social care across the

sub-region.

what were the key issues for the fourcouncils in the black country at thebeginning of the project work?

Each borough sought to review its own

governance arrangements for taking forward

InLAWS as service commissioning, workforce

and financial strategies were not sufficiently

‘joined up’. All four also needed to refresh their

workforce strategies so that they would better

reflect their own local area workforce rather

than their in-house workforce.

what work was undertaken?

Following a series of planning meetings with a

lead DASS, workforce leads and Skills for Care

staff, a project plan was agreed. The four DASS

were kept informed of developments

throughout the project via meetings and short

emailed reports, to ensure that issues identified

were drawn to their attention as the project

progressed. This work was led by the

consultant with very good support from Skills

for Care staff in the region who also attended

each of the meetings and events.

activities October 2009 – At the first learning group

workforce leads discussed the self evaluation

they had prepared based on the six themes set

out in the Department of Health’s Working toPut People First to help identify common

workforce issues, gaps and key barriers to

progressing InLAWS in their local area.

Common issues and barriers were fed back to

the four DASS. This really helped secure good

attendance of council staff at the half day event

in November 2009.

Barriers identified were:

1. The need to promote mutualunderstanding and closer workingbetween colleagues in workforce,service commissioning and financefunctions and developing a widerunderstanding of the benefits ofusing NMDS-SC.

2. Developing a commissioningstrategy which enables theworkforce to be commissionedalong with services.

3. The importance of raising levels ofengagement in the PVI sector.

4. The importance of having a clearmodel of service delivery in eachcouncil to facilitate progress withdefining the future workforce.

November 2009 – A consultant facilitated a

half day event with input from workforce leads

and Skills for Care staff. This brought together

workforce leads, finance, commissioning and

personalisation leads in the four councils to

explore how to work together more closely to

progress InLAWS in their own council. It

provided an excellent opportunity for whole

group discussion on the principles of InLAWS,

the benefits of integrated working and the

value of NMDS-SC. Each council took away

three action points to progress InLAWS in their

own organisation.

December 2009 – The second learning group

was used to review progress and learning to

date in each council and to discuss how BCPC

may be able to support future development

activities. The BCPC manager and vice chair

also joined this meeting to enhance their

understanding of InLAWS and associated

workforce issues. The group worked together

to agree core messages learnt to date that

could be shared at the West Midlands show

case event in January 2010. These messages

were about InLAWS governance, engaging

with the private voluntary and independent

(PVI) sector and cultural change.

January 2010 – At the InLAWS show case

event workforce leads gave a very good joint

presentation to share the core messages,

bringing in examples from their own councils.

Two councils presented at the morning

workshop and two did so in the afternoon.

February 2010 – One to one meetings were

held with workforce leads and other relevant

staff in each council to agree next steps to

refresh workforce strategies and progress

InLAWS with their colleagues.

outcomesAs a result of this process workforce leads have built closer relationships with their colleagues in

service commissioning and finance which will facilitate future conversations to help join up

internal processes and progress InLAWS.

Workforce leads also have a greater understanding of:

Current gaps in the their local area workforce and what needs to be done to refresh their

workforce strategy to help meet the challenges of Putting People First.The key barriers to progressing InLAWS in their own council and how governance

arrangements need to change to bring this about.

Common workforce issues across the Black Country and how these may be jointly addressed

in future.

The importance of the JSNA to service and workforce commissioning.

lessons learnt

This project achieved its objectives because the DASS and workforce leads had an

understanding and were signed up to the InLAWS concept. BCPC is an established

partnership and both the DASS and the workforce leads are used to working together.

Resources are in place to maintain this partnership. Skills for Care in the West Midlands

were proactive in supporting the project and disseminating outcomes.

suggestions to help make projects of this nature a success

As with any work of this nature, the principles of good project management apply, so agree a

project plan that all parties sign up to and set out how this will be managed.

Ensure there is strong buy-in from the DASS and workforce leads before committing to a

project of this nature.

If the partnership is not well established be prepared to spend considerable time and effort in

setting up and maintaining your partnership and ensuring each member organisation feels they

will gain sufficient value for the time they invest.

If DASS are not directly involved consider how you will communicate with all of the DASS as a

group throughout the project. You may wish to link with a lead DASS in the group who will help

with dissemination of project progress but this only works if they meet regularly. Otherwise you

will need to set up specific meetings with the DASS as a group or try to ‘piggy back’ on to the

end of existing meetings and use emailed reports to give feedback to them.

Take time to establish a common purpose and build relationships even if the local authorities

you are planning to work with are not exactly at the same stage on workforce issues. There

can be real benefits in sharing learning and mutual support.

Running a half day event for the different people involved in InLAWS with other local authorities

can be a really good way to debate and spark new ideas and generally find out what others

are doing. You will need a shared agenda and outcomes agreed in advance with clear roles for

each local authority involved.

future actionsEach workforce leads have clear action points on what needs to be done to refresh their workforce

strategies. Progressing InLAWS will be firmly on the agenda.

Each of the four local authorities is developing an InLAWS position statement to help them gain an

overview of key activities on; leadership, commissioning strategy, data collection and analysis,

partnership with providers, joint and integrated working, direction of travel with information and advice

services and workforce regulation and safeguarding and to determine where future action is needed.

insights in to the InLAWS process from the black country project

core messages on InLAWS governance

Building good relationships are absolutely key to success, don’t neglect this.

Strong leadership at all levels, a clear remit, accountability as well as wide ownership are critical.

Who is at the table? – make sure you have the right people at the right level with the right

knowledge who can make things happen.

Progressing InLAWS takes time, the process itself creates the means for intelligent

re-design to meet Putting People First and improve efficiency so be bold (this is in contrast to

‘how can we adopt an approach that causes the minimum change to existing arrangements?’)

Many things you need to progress InLAWS may already be there – make sure these are used.

core messages on engaging with the private voluntary and independent (PVI) sector

We need to ensure an ongoing relationship and a strong partnership approach between local

authority and service providers to ensure the best possible outcomes for all parties (i.e. don’t

wait until the end of the transformation to engage – invite providers in discussions to help with

shaping of the future to get their buy-in).

Develop the community role of the DASS and get independent providers to exercise an interest.

PVI organisations have to be made to understand the implications of Putting People First and

adapt their business models to meet changing service needs. Local authorities must get the

message across to providers that they need to prepare to do more with less but there are also

opportunities for those who wish to take them.

Local authorities need to look carefully at the procurement/commissioner/service provider relationship

– as workforce and services are part of a package and block contracts will not be an option in future.

core message on cultural change in PVI organisations

It is really important to develop greater dignity at the front line. This means developing leadership

capacity and empowering people. Current training on offer by providers and the four local

authorities need re-examining to check it matches these changing requirements.

© Skills for Care 2010