User Experience of Social Care

If the future delivery model for social care needs to be set in the context of redefining the roles of the individual, family and state, it is important to understand the views of the local people in Barnet who are in receipt of social care services or potential customers in order to inform future plans.

On an annual basis, Adult Social Services conducts a user satisfaction survey to examine the experience of service users in a particular area of service. The results and feedback from the last three surveys are included in the appendix. Emerging from these survey results and feedback to other specific service consultations including day services for people with a physical and sensory impairment, the following themes emerge

People want and need more information about what is happening at different stages of service delivery e.g. from identifying need for equipment to installation so that they can take control of their lives

Less delays in receiving a service, and follow-up calls once they have started receiving a service

People in receipt of social care feel more socially isolated, are concerned for their personal safety and have reduce ability to travel to places that they would like to go to. This contributes to a feeling of a reduced lack of control over daily life.

That there are a wider variety of services provided locally but people need to be better signposted to them in order to access them – if you do not know what is out there you cannot be expected to use it.

Good social care should support people and carers to access employment and carers support services need to be prioritised especially breaks to allow carers to continue to stay in paid work.

Between 05/09/08 and 14/11/08, the London Borough of Barnet facilitated a public discussion on the strategic proposals to change assessment and care management practice to give people more choice and control through personal budgets. This included a questionnaire and an open debate on 02/10/08.

Getting good and reliable access to social care was a strong theme through a one stop shop approach. People want to be able to access services without the need for face to face assessments with widespread support for quite significant services, such as short breaks, home care and occupational therapy equipment being provided on the basis of the phone assessments

There was support for providing information via the internet – interestingly more people stated that they would like information online than by phone.

People appeared to see the benefit of introducing short-term ‘enablement’ packages of care. They suggested a wide range of services that could be included in such packages. Interestingly, there was a focus on services that would not sit in a normal ‘enablement homecare’ package – such as accessing occupational therapy equipment and helping people develop social networks.

People had a very balanced view of the advantages and disadvantages of personal

budgets. Many people reaffirmed the belief that it would help make people more independent and give them more control and choice over their support. Common concerns about the budgets centred on the new risks they introduce for things to go wrong – either because managing them is too stressful for individuals or carers, or that the people managing them fail to cope with the responsibility and make poor care management or financial decisions. The debate showed that people needed more detail before they could be fully comfortable with the idea.

People were open to the idea of groups other than the council supporting people to plan their care. The perceived benefits of this were that it increased people’s independence, choice and control. By contrast, the perceived risks focussed on those people involved having insufficient expertise to assist people needing social services effectively. A very wide range of groups were put forward as having the ability to get involved in this process. The most commonly mentioned ones were family, friends, 3rd sector organisations, and health professionals.