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Kim Wright explains how Hackney has restructured its adult services department as part of its bid to meet the Government's vision for social care. Local authorities will currently be in the process of designing and putting into practice services to help the Government's Putting people first adult social care vision become a reality. The Government's aim is to give people more choice and control over their care services, including the option of a personal budget they can use to buy services they want in their care plan. This is a response to an ageing population and calls for more dignity in care from people with physical and learning disabilities. Making sure we get adult social services right for local people is vital in our borough, which is one of the most diverse in the country, and with high levels of deprivation. To best meet the challenge of our transformation of the adult social care agenda, we have restructured our programme team and are carrying out consultation with stakeholders. Each assistant director now sponsors one of several projects, and the successful delivery of these is key to how Hackney will adapt to and roll out its transformation programme. I remain the overall programme sponsor, and all of this is, of course, with the vital backing of our cabinet member for community services, Cllr Nargis Khan, who is also the LGA's community wellbeing board deputy chair. A focus of the programme is on prevention, early intervention and re-ablement to support people who are not eligible for personal budgets. We are aligning services with our health partners, and working with the voluntary and community sector to ensure that people who aren't eligible get referred to the right service for their needs, and that they are monitored throughout the process. Through our prevention and wellbeing project, we have also developed a strategy following consultation with over-55s to enhance the quality and accessibility of services available to them in the borough. Part of our role is to prepare the market for the changes personalisation will bring. Through the personalisation and prevention projects, people will have more choice and control over what services they receive and who provides these services for them. This means moving to a much more competitive and open market, and we have a project in place to evaluate the market, review and enhance our commissioning procedures, and prepare providers for change, as well as developing systems which help service-users choose what is right for them. This is expected to be a major piece of work and is currently in its early stages. What links all the projects is the cross-cutting communications and engagement strategy that aims to involve local people, staff and other stakeholders throughout. The voluntary and community sector in Hackney is long-established and well-connected, with around 30 networks linking up an estimated 1,800 organisations, and it has an important role to play in the programme. Getting each on board with transformation is crucial, and advisory groups made up of representatives from the sector and service-users are being set up with a remit to challenge and influence programme design. This will provide quality, expert feedback from impartial sources. We have worked with local organisations on targeted consultation to form an evidence base to influence the programme designs. A group which trains former service-users to lead meetings has carried out a number of consultation events with different communities in Hackney, including Turkish, Kurdish, Somali, and LGBT communities. We have also worked with an organisation led by people with learning disabilities to carry out similar activities with their clients. To make sure our adult social care meets local needs and offers a quality, safe service to individuals was always going to be a big challenge, and it is even more so with the intense pressures on public sector finances. Yet it is also a great opportunity to develop working relations with local people and organisations, review existing systems and processes, and through this, modernise care support so it is equal to today's demands. Kim Wright is corporate director for community services at Hackney LBC

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WHITEHALL

Putting people first in Hackney

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