News

Deputy mayor of New York speaks to conference

An interview with the deputy mayor of New York in which he talked about the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy was relayed to delegates at the National Social Services Conference, writes David Callaghan.

The Local Government Association's head of social affairs John Ransford travelled to New York to talk to Anthony Coles about the efforts made by the city's leadership to return it to some normality and revive the morale of citizens.

Coles apologised for not being able to attend the conference in person, but explained how the terrorist attack had been the preoccupation of everyone in New York.

He said the city had been forced to 'peg back' budgets by 15 per cent because a downturn in the city's economy will reduce civic revenues by an estimated $1 billion in this financial year. Tax rises have been ruled out, he said, and there may even be tax cuts to stimulate the economy.

Video clips of New York's mayor Rudolph Giuliani giving a briefing on the financial implications of the attacks were also shown.

Ransford said: 'The most encouraging thing we found was the absolute absence of rancour. But there is a search for understanding for why this happened and not a thirst for revenge.'

He said this country could learn from the Americans' resolve, and use their experience to address problems such as inequality.

More support needed for disabled parents

Disabled parents are often unable to access support through community care because their needs are not accounted for in eligibility criteria, delegates heard, writes Sally Gillen.

Researcher Michele Wates, who was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to examine social services’ departments written protocols on disabled parents, said: “We very much hope that in the forthcoming fair access to care services, the policy guidance of which is out for consultation, social services should include something on the parenting role and tasks within the eligibility criteria in community care services.”

Only a handful of the country’s 150-plus departments had a set of protocols that focused particularly on disabled parents, she said.

Other findings included in her report, which will be published early next year, were that disabled parents are anxious about approaching social services for help, but few measures were taken to address these fears, and in over half of the 30 policies and protocols analysed for the research the intention to support disabled parents was not translated into measures that would be supportive in practice.

Wates told delegates: “We hear of parents who are told (when they approach social services) to go away and come back when there is a problem.”

Disabled parents are often reluctant to ask social services for help because they do not want their children labelled as being children in need, said Wates.

Social services were often too eager to transfer the children of disabled people to children’s services and support for the parents often drops off the agenda.

She said: “More guidance is needed from the department of health as to how children and adult services can best co-operate and work for disabled parents.”

Closer working arrangements delayed six months

Progress towards closer working between health and social services will be delayed by at least six months as a result of internal restructuring within the NHS, local authorities warned, writes Lauren Revans.

Delegates attending a policy session on the way forward for health and social care heard that the changes outlined in government’s document published this summer, Shifting the Balance of Power in the NHS, would leave health organisations with no choice but to focus on internal changes rather than partnership arrangements.

The document proposes replacing the 95 health authorities in England with around 30 strategic health authorities from April 2002, and making primary care trusts the lead NHS organisations with responsibility for assessing need, planning and securing all health services, and improving health in their localities.

Richard Humphries, chief executive of Herefordshire health authority and director of health, housing and social care at Herefordshire Council, said: “The NHS will be looking at its own internal structures instead of outwards at the partnerships. That will set the process back. It’s going to need six months from April to settle down.”

Dave Martin, acting chief executive of Sandwell health authority and executive director for social exclusion and health at Sandwell Council, urged local authorities to be patient with their health colleagues.

“It’s about having confidence,” he said. “We need to do everything we can to keep key players doing pretty much what they were doing before. If they turn up in a different structure it doesn’t matter – they won’t change their spots.

Martin predicted that “re-engagement” with health partners post restructuring would be gradual, with several phases. “Everyone has a very complicated set of changes ahead of them, and at the same time we are trying to turn round and modernise services,” he said.

* Youth offending teams or community mental health groups are good templates for care trust structures, the conference was told.

David Browning, who is associate director of public services research for the Audit Commission, said multi-disciplinary teams such as YOTs and mental health teams form an effective model to follow.

He also said a 'network manager' can help to co-ordinate the partnership working between agencies essential if care trusts are to be successful.

Brian Dornan, who is director of social services for Southern Health and Social Services Board in Northern Ireland, explained how Down and Lisburn Health Trust combined health and social services into one organisation.

Primary care teams were created, including social services, based in GP practices. "There is no wall between health and social care staff," he said.

He said 90 per cent of staff preferred the new integrated working arrangements, and believed it led to improved services.

Dornan said it was important to avoid nominal integration and domination of one profession.

Tories promise improved professional standing for social work

Tim Loughton, the new Conservative social services spokesperson, provided a pastiche of recent briefings from social services chiefs on the current crisis facing social care, writes Rachel Downey.

“Many social services departments are no longer able adequately to carry out their statutory responsibilities,” he told delegates. 

He outlined staff shortages, increases in demand, an unfair distribution of resources between the NHS and social care and initiative overload “where central government gets all the kudos, but local government departments will get all the flak when it all goes wrong”.

Last week’s announcement of an additional £300 million to combat bed blocking this winter was “a drop in the ocean”, he added, warning the government “would not be forgiven a second time” if it failed to meet its targets on care of older people.

His solutions were limited. He suggested examining “not just independent treatment episodes but the whole system of care holistically”, and looking at the transfer of funds from acute hospital sector to care in the community to give a better balance.

The only new proposal was a national independent assessment forum, which would devise a standard for assessing care needs to cover the whole country. 

Loughton said he hoped the forthcoming government recruitment campaign would not just focus on raising qualifications but the public perception of the profession. He claimed the Conservative party would raise the professional standing of social workers and all those who work in social services to that anticipated for nurses, doctors and teachers. “The Conservative approach is to trust professionals to get on with their job with minimum interference from central government.”

He criticised the government for setting “targets for everyone but priorities for none” and when it goes wrong, blaming local authorities.

IT strategy crucial to national service frameworks

The government's national service frameworks will not be delivered without the implementation of the accompanying IT and information strategy, according to a department of health official, writes Jonathan Pearce.

"The IT and information strategy is absolutely essential to the delivery of the national service frameworks. It is hard to see how it would be delivered without it," said Anne Fletcher, clinical governance information manager at the doh's information policy unit.

Information strategies aim to enhance services for users through the better use of improved information. They have already been developed for the NSFs for cancer, mental health and coronary heart disease, and are in the pipeline for older people and diabetes. However, Fletcher said the department was planning a review of how the strategies worked and linked with the NSFs.

"It may well be we could integrate the information strategies into the NSFs, which would be a very useful way forward," she added.

With the information strategy for older people due in the next two months, Joan Rawdon, East Riding of Yorkshire Council head of partnerships and projects, said it would be a question of putting "theory into practice".

"The national service framework for older people actually heralds a very distinct change in the way we deliver services to older people," she said. "The information strategy for older people is very much about the information helping us provide an information infrastructure and service to deliver improved services to older people."