People Development:
REPORT ON ACTION LEARNING SETS
Authors : Katie Carew-Robinson
Document version : 0.2
Approval :
Name / Signature / DateEDITIONS
Version / Description / Amendments / Creation Date / Issue Date0.1 / First Draft / 25/08/11
0.2 / Revisions from Portsmouth CAFA team / 4/10/11
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Reference / Document Name / Document DescriptionSouthampton Consortium PID v1_0.doc / Successful bid submitted to the DH for funding in the second round of CAF for Adults
Project Work Package Definition: People Development - CAFA2 / Project work package definition for Portsmouth pilot.
Issue Date: 04/10/2011 Page i
CONTENTS
1. outline 4
1.1 Background 4
2. METHODOLOGY 5
2.1 Selection of participants 5
2.2 Citizen / User Action Learning Sets 5
2.3 Professional / Staff ALS 6
3. RESULTS OF Action Learning Sets 8
3.1 PRRT Folder 8
3.2 Adult Social Care Information 8
3.3 Process Maps 10
4. next steps & dissemination 10
4.1 Workshop / launch 10
4.2 Distribution channels 10
5 appendices 12
5.1 Appendix: initial report 12
5.2 Appendix: notes from the action learning sets 12
5.3 Appendix: ALS Participation Invitation 12
5.4 Appendix: PRRT roles & responsibilities 12
5.5 Appendix: Frequently Asked Questions 12
5.6 Comments / Responses 13
5.6.1 General Comments 13
Issue Date: 04/10/2011 Page i
- outline
1.1 Background
This report forms a core part of the CAFA2 People Development opportunity within Portsmouth. It has been written to detail the outcome of the action learning sets held with users of services and related work undertaken with professionals.
The main objective of the action learning sets was to find out the most effective media channel(s) to keep professionals and individuals updated with information and processes relating to community health and social care services.
As a precursor to the action learning sets, an initial report was written to determine the different ways of keeping people up to date with the latest information. This report is attached in the appendix. The action learning sets and work with professionals then determined the form and content of the information to be disseminated to individuals receiving services from community health and social care teams.
This report consists of the following sections:
· Methodology
· Results from the learning sets
· Next steps/dissemination
- METHODOLOGY
2.1 Selection of participants
In order to get as broad a range of people as possible attending the action learning sets, a letter was sent to everyone who had received a service from either the Independent Living Service (social care) or the Rapid Response Team (health) in the 6 months between July and December 2010. Approximately 700 letters were sent.
The letter invited the recipient to get in touch with the Business Change Manager if they were interested in being involved in the action learning sets. A copy of the letter is attached in the appendix.
Twelve people expressed an interest in participating in the learning sets; there was a 50/50 split in whether they had received services from health or social care, some having had both at some point in recent years.
2.2 Citizen / User Action Learning Sets
Action learning sets were undertaken to better understand the issues around information that citizens receive from health and social care. The focus was on whether the individuals thought that information sharing between health and social care was good or bad. It was also an opportunity to explore whether the information individuals received was good enough and whether there was a difference in quality of the information by provider. It was envisaged that the outcome of the learning sets would be to put together a media / information pack to help better inform citizens, and staff, about health and social care. Giving citizens better information about services can empower them to request a better or more personalised service if they understand what is available to them.
Action learning is an accelerated learning tool which can be applied to any number of different issues and challenges. Participants of action learning sets meet regularly in order to explore solutions to real problems and decide on the actions to take. When doing this in the set, the stages include:
1. Describing the problem(s)
2. Receiving contributions from others in the form of questions
3. Reflecting on the discussions and deciding what action to take
4. Reporting back on what happened when the action was taken
5. Reflecting on the problem-solving process and how well it is working[1]
The CAFA action learning sets were facilitated by a member of the Learning & Development team at Portsmouth City Council. She is a qualified social worker and approved mental health practitioner, with responsibility for the training of newly qualified social workers.
The action learning sets were held at the Frank Sorrell Centre, the home of Portsmouth Disability Forum, the user led organisation who facilitate the Portsmouth Overview Group (POG) for the project. This building was chosen as it is easily accessible for wheelchair users, on bus routes and fairly near all participants’ homes, as they all lived in the south of the City (travel costs were reimbursed where necessary).
Each date was agreed with the participants of the learning set to ensure as many of the group as possible were available. The group met four times with a break of approximately a month between each meeting
Refreshments were provided at every meeting. Lunch was provided at the first meeting but the participants chose to move the meetings to the afternoons and decided that only light refreshments (tea, coffee and biscuits) were necessary.
Two case studies were devised to aid discussion in the action learning sets. The participants in the group all felt comfortable sharing their own experiences and so there was more discussion around shared experiences than the case studies throughout the learning sets. Occasionally the case studies were used to bring the group’s focus back to information sharing.
The full notes of the meetings, with names taken out, are attached in the appendix.
2.3 Professional / Staff ALS
The original plans included holding action learning sets with staff from the Portsmouth Rehabilitation & Reablement Team (PRRT).
The PRRT was established as part of the Health and Social Care Partnership (HaSP) programme. HaSP is a joint initiative between Adult Social Care, Portsmouth City Council and NHS Solent Healthcare and aims to integrate health social care provision within the Portsmouth area. The PRRT was the first team to come together as a part of the HaSP programme and joined the two intermediate care services from health and social care into a single team.
During the time the action learning sets were taking place, the PRRT was just being formed. The management team were meeting regularly to plan for the co-location and then to operationally manage the service. The team members from both health and social care were adjusting to the change and taking part in various team building and “getting to know you” events. It was therefore felt that asking for a group of staff to additionally participate in action learning sets whilst they were already very busy adjusting to the new team would be counterproductive.
Therefore, at the end of March 2011, two members of the Department of Health central Common Assessment Framework for Adults (CAFA) team spent two days with the PRRT talking to staff at all levels about integration of the two teams. Their work focussed around three questions:
· What do you think are the benefits of integration?
· What do you think are the barriers to achieving integration?
· Do you have any ideas or thoughts on solutions for the issues identified above?
Solutions identified by the PRRT team members, as a result of the above questions, are being put into practice, led by the management team. As this is much the same outcome as was expected by the action learning sets, and focuses on improving information sharing and integration of the teams, it was felt that there was no need to hold formal action learning sets.
The citizen action learning set participants were also specifically tasked to look at the information folder left in a service user’s home while they receive a service from PRRT. The feedback from both this and the wider review of available information was taken to the PRRT management team meeting for discussion and resulted in changes to the format of the information folder (see section 3.1).
- RESULTS OF Action Learning Sets
3.1 PRRT Folder
PRRT have a ring binder that is left with service users in their homes for the duration of their service from the team. This was an amalgamation of forms and information that had previously been left with individuals who received a service from the independent living service and/or the rapid response team.
The purpose of the folder is to keep all care plans and information around the person’s care in one place, easily accessible to staff coming in to deliver the care, and to service users themselves.
The folder contained a lot of information, including a brief overview on the role of the team.
As a result of feedback from the learning set participants, the following changes were made to the PRRT folder:
· The file is now indexed with a contents page
· The information contained within the file has been streamlined
· There is a page on roles and responsibilities of each PRRT member. This was requested as the individuals found it useful to understand what each member of the team is able to do. This sheet is attached in appendix.
The PRRT management team will also use the roles and responsibilities sheet as a tool in inductions for new staff coming into the team.
3.2 Adult Social Care Information
The action learning set participants also considered other information that is available to service users, which varies depending on their setting.
The learning sets coincided with the Portsmouth City Council Adult Social Care service reviewing their publications. Previously, a printed booklet, “guide to adult social care”, existed for members of the public. The review has resulted in the development of an information pack which consists of a folder and loose leaf contents. This format was chosen as it makes the pages easy to update and therefore gives the information pack longevity that is not available with a printed booklet. The information contained within the folder can also be tailored to the individual.
The core information included within the pack is an A-Z of services, “contact us” sheet and a page describing what adult social care is.
The group found this useful but also commented that they had found out a variety of other information from their various networks (both formal and informal) and coming together in the learning sets. It was agreed that it would be useful for this information to be available in one place.
Much of the information, e.g. changes to benefits as a result of an admission, is available online on various websites e.g DirectGov, Social Care info Portsmouth. Within the adult social care pages on the Portsmouth City Council website there was already a page of useful information and links (http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/2920.html) which included some of the information identified by the participants.
The group also discussed that although some of them were computer literate, others did not want to access the internet. Although all the information on the website is available through the helpdesk there was not an obvious way to signpost to this without a lot of text on the helpdesk leaflet. It was decided to create a collection of “frequently asked questions” to add to the core information within the folder. This is attached as an appendix.
All the information identified within the action learning sets was then added to the useful information and links page, as well as the frequently asked questions document. The document itself has also been added to the adult social care website home page http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/13866.html and to the useful information page.
Initially, it was envisaged that a media pack would be developed as part of the People Development opportunity, to help signpost individual users and carers to relevant information/services. However, in light of the fact that ASC developing their new information pack at the same time, it was felt it would be a better of use of resources and less confusing to citizens to provide feedback derived from the ALS to shape this (and the PRRT folder), rather than develop a separate pack.
3.3 Process Maps
As a part of the CAFA work, a business analyst will be creating process maps for PRRT and other community health and social care teams.
The group agreed that process maps would be a useful addition to better understand the journey they will undertake when they are receiving a service. The PRRT process map(s) will be added to the PRRT folders and adult social care website pages once they have been created.
Process maps for the other health and social care community teams will be added to the website pages as and when they become available and may be included in the adult social care folder if the user groups believe this to be useful.
- next steps & dissemination
4.1 Workshop / launch
A workshop event will be planned in partnership with the participants of the action learning sets and the Portsmouth Overview Group (POG) to refine the frequently asked questions document.
The format, time and date will all be agreed with the two groups of people in order to have the maximum impact. Staff will also be invited to attend.
It is possible that this event could also be used as a launch or workshop for the adult social care information folder as a whole. This will be decided in conjunction with the publications working group.
It is envisaged that the frequently asked questions will be a live document with people able to email any suggestions or other questions they think should be added. The moderation of these suggestions will be undertaken by the universal information development worker, who is also responsible for monitoring and moderating content on the Social Care info Portsmouth website.