Adult Social Care Programme - Executive Summary

• All 12 authority areas now have a reablement service. Work to produce a regional data set has begun and will be carried forward beyond 31st March. This puts the North East on the way to realising the potential net savings of between £14.8m and £35.4m identified in the regional business case.


• All 12 LAs now have at least one ULO in their area thus meeting the DH PPF milestone.


• Public relations and communications resources and skills have been embedded across adult social care in the region.


• Local authorities are better prepared to respond to increases in dementia and the resulting impact on demand for social care support.


• The North East was the first region (and remains the only region) to have developed a regional workforce strategy which included partners from across the sector. Developing the strategy enabled extensive consultation and consideration to be given to regional priorities which impacted upon all sectors / partners within adult social care. One of the key priorities identified in the strategy was to create a regional workforce forum made up of the regional partners and this has remained strong throughout the past 18 months. This will continue on beyond the life of the RIEP ensuring a legacy of the work the RIEP began.


• To date, all 12 LAs now have substantially more NMDS (national minimum data set) data stored about their workforce. The aim is for all 12 LAs to achieve Gold Standard (90%) data return and currently we are confident of achieving this with 9 of the 12 LAs. The latest figures for the North East show that the numbers of individual workers who have their data inputted onto NMDS has risen from circa 29,000 to 40,843. Although this is not LAs alone what it does show is that considerable progress is being made. This also means that detailed reports based upon strong evidence can be drawn down about the workforce from NMDS.


• The North East Social Work Consortium (NESWOC) has been central to social work development in the North East for the past 15 years. NESWOC is a well used resource which provides a coordination and integration role between LAs (Adults and Children's) and Universities across the region. RIEP funding has enabled NESWOC to continue in this role in a particularly challenging time as the National Social Work Reform Board begins to produce information and guidance to be implemented at a local level across the country.


• The Early Detection of Urinary Tract Infections project has resulted in a great deal of interest due to its experimental nature and has been presented at national and regional conferences.


• Rapid Response Telecare has greatly improved joint working between South Tyneside Council and the local NHS with new jointly agreed discharge procedures. Social services are now actively involved in discharge plans for patients at an early stage. The project has radically increased the use of telecare within the authority with an increase in referrals of 65%.


• The Over 85s project has already succeeded in promoting inter-agency working and the Fire Service has provided free smoke detectors in some authorities. It is estimated that the project could generate savings of £7.5m in Newcastle alone.


• Citizen Support Exchange has successfully trained 163 people as personal assistants, providing new employment opportunities for unemployed people in Teesside and improving the standards of practice and professionalism of those working as personal assistants.


• Hartlepool Centre for Independent Living has brought about the successful development of a Centre for Independent Living.