Fair Deal's Self Directed Support Demonstration

This page explains why are we undertaking a demonstration project for self directed support (SDS).
As an organisation Fair Deal is keen to move towards providing a more personalised arrangement and to promote self-directed support both as a response to the demands of people who use our services, their carers and in order to anticipate changes in the funding landscape.

In order to achieve this we have engaged Jo Kennedy, an independent consultant. Jo has brought together a team of 3 consultants who will work with us to do this. Jo herself is skilled in person centred planning, community connecting and facilitating service change.

At Fair Deal because we are keen to develop and provide personalised support for people who use our services we need to explore what this might entail and what it means for us.

We will achieve this by working jointly with 5 people supported by Fair Deal, staff and families and carers.

We have invited 6 people we currently support to take part in a demonstration project with the aim of developing creative, personalised individual support arrangements for each person. 5 people have taken up that offer.

For the 5 people the process will involve:

planning with the individuals, perhaps using a methodology such as the Big Plan;
researching and developing creative support packages with each person;
working to put these support packages in place; and
involving people in monitoring their own budget.

Fair Deal over the past 4 months has talked about the changes in social care and the importance of the organisation preparing and leading the way within the personalisation and the self directed support agenda. In order to achieve this we have identified 6 staff who have volunteered to take part in the demonstration project.

For the staff involved employed by Fair Deal:

The process will include them:

• taking part in appropriate SDS training;
• being prepared to read material in relation to personalisation and self-directed support;
• opening their minds to new concepts and ways of working; contributing to support plans;
• feeding back to colleagues; and
• contributing to the learning for Fair Deal.

Families and carers:

We have talked through the proposed changes in the social care sector with families and carers through our parent and carer forum.  We have also talked with families and carers about the changes to funding explored through different models of support. We will engage families of those people within the demonstration project and encourage people to feed back to the parent and carer forum.

Care manager:

We will talk to each care manger about the demonstration project and seek their co-operation in order for the organisation to learn from the project and hopefully take a lead within Glasgow.

Finance and Admin:

We are talking to the lead officers within our finance department and admin in order to address any blockages within the current structure and / or our way of operating. We are individualising the budget for each person involved within the demonstration project and will report against expenditure at Fair Deal's SMT finance monthly.

What will change?

People will:

have much more of an understanding of their own budget and how that works;
be at the centre of their support and be more in control;
have an outcome focused support plan which will be reviewed and updated regularly;
be involved in letting other people who use Fair Deal's services find out about the difference the demonstration project is making to their lives and what has changed as a result of the project.

Staff will:

have a greater understanding of the different models of support;
have a greater knowledge of individual budgets and how they can be used flexibly;
have access to training and development opportunities around personalisation and self directed support;
have an opportunity to coach and mentor their Fair Deal colleagues about the learning from the personalisation   demonstration project.

Timesheets:

Fair Deal will introduce timesheets to record time spent with each person in order to allocate hours across the people staff have worked with.

Finance accountability:

Fair Deal is preparing a system to record individual income and expenditure which in turn will assist Fair Deal to cost out each component of our services;
Fair Deal will have a menu of services available with an hourly rate associated with the service type that will be easy to understand, based on accurate information drawn from the demonstration project

Web site:

We are revamping the web site in order to make it more accessible for people who may wish to find out more about the range of services we provide with the associated costs;
We will be showcasing the web site with other providers in the city.

Monitoring the impact and benefit of the project:

The board is preparing a robust monitoring and evaluation process in conjunction with staff

Other issues for the organisation to consider include:

Promoting the organisation  - clarifying the added benefits that people will receive  from Fair Deal;
Preparing a robust and flexible marketing plan;
Monitoring the impact and changes from the demonstration project and discussing with service development group;
Addressing how we meet core/central costs associated with the organisation if all budgets are individualised;
How to move people from their current system of support and funding to a more personalised way of operating;
Ensuring the organisation gets buy-in from staff to personalised support and that they are empowered to make decisions;
Systems to ensure that all Board sub groups monitor effectively and ensure the demonstration project flourishes;
Ensure that people are given the opportunity to access Advocacy.

This is a challenging but extremely exciting time for everyone at Fair Deal, especially those people involved in this demonstration site. We want to thank everyone for their committement to this and for supporting the ongoing development and innovation at Fair Deal for which we are well known and respected.