Getting involved in Adult Social Care

Our approach explains in brief our commitment to involving the residents of Coventry in the development of services across Adult Social Care.

Our approach

Health and Care Partnership Vision: "We will do all we can to enable people across Coventry and Warwickshire to pursue happy, healthy lives and put people at the heart of everything we do"

In Adult Social Care we place adults and their carers at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to ensuring that people with care and support needs and their carers can be equal partners in planning and shaping future developments.

Our aspirations

We aim to work in a way that is transparent, honest, accessible, inclusive and that we maintain an open dialogue. We want decisions made in Adult Social Care to be informed by the voices of Coventry residents.

We acknowledge

We recognise that not everyone has the same opportunities. We will work to ensure that there is a range of ways to be involved, from being informed to developing services together. We will work with partners to ensure that we are inclusive, and that people can engage in ways that best support their strengths.

Why involve, engage and co-produce? – Taking a strengths-based approach

Adult Social Care can be an emotive and deeply personal subject. We are often involved in people’s lives at a time of change, crisis and sometimes profound trauma. We are also involved in times of excitement, new aspirations and reestablishing independence. The way we work with people, who are sometimes at their most vulnerable, can have a lasting impact and it can shape and define long term outcomes.

We adopt a strengths-based approach to practice in Coventry which is embedded in the principle that the people we are working with are experts in their own lives and their experience of receiving support is integral to the way in which we develop and improve our services, in the here and now and for the future.

Working together leads to:

• Better informed decision making
• Improved experience of people with care and support needs and carers
• More chance of getting things right at the first point of contact
• New ways of thinking and fresh perspectives
• Differing perspectives and challenging the status quo
• Nurtures better relationships and improved trust in services
• Develops a learning culture

Developing a mixed approach to engagement

Doing with:

Treating others as experts. exchanging ideas is key!

• Co-production
• Co-design

Doing for:

Engaging and involving people

• Engagement
• Consultation
• Informing

Doing to:

Treating to fix people who are passive recipients of care.

• Educating
• coercion

How do we involve?

We co-produce on a day-to-day basis

Everyday practitioners are working closely with people to co-design care and support plans. We encourage a strengths-based approach and recognise that people and their families know the best solutions to their own situations. Practitioners are supported to work in creative ways to support individualised outcomes for people.

We tell our stories

We share good practice and learn when things have gone wrong. We encourage a space where people and their families feel able to tell us their story. We share their stories throughout the year and we highlight key successes in the Annual Report for Adult Social Care.

We come together

We have meetings every other month were anyone with experience of Adult Social Care is welcome to attend. This is called our Adult Social Care Stakeholder group. We discuss upcoming developments, social care reforms and we seek input into key developments and policies.

We seek "real-time" feedback

We ask people for their feedback through their social care journey. We use this information to inform how we improve services. We ask people if they want to be involved.

We let people know what we're doing

When we need to make changes, we keep people informed of what we’re doing and seek ways of involving people in these discussions. This might be, through the use of surveys, or it may focus groups and sessions.

We recruit together

We involve people in key recruitment processes for staff working in Adult Social Care. This can be through people being part of a recruitment panel when we’re looking to recruit new staff.

We commission services together

We involve people in commissioning processes when we are developing new and existing services. We involve stakeholders in the evaluation of tenders and the development of service specifications.

We challenge together

We involve people in the scrutiny and review of our services, this can involve peer reviews, research, and evaluation to make sure we’re working effectively.

We learn together

We invite people to attend training sessions, we also involve people in delivering training sessions so they can provide direct lived experience.

We keep people informed

We produce a range of bulletins to provide regular updates around activity in Adult Social Care and chances to be involved. We provide a monthly Carers Bulletin and a bi-monthly Adult Social Care Bulletin. We work with partners to share content and encourage opportunities to become involved.

Our key principles to engagement

Being involved and providing feedback can involve time and commitment. In Adult Social Care our commitment to co-production is outlined in our core principles:

• We treat people as equal partners
• We are honest about what decisions can be made and where change is possible
• We have a range of ways people can be involved
• We will present information in a way that is accessible and promotes inclusivity
• We involve people throughout the decision-making process
• We will work to identify groups that are seldom heard and seek proactive approaches in working with communities
• We will explore any barriers that might exist to involvement and look to overcome these, for example, reimbursement of travel costs or the provision of replacement care

Working in partnership

We know that Adult Social Care does not sit in isolation from other services and there is a strong connection with other areas such as health and voluntary sector support. The way that people interact with services forms a vital part of people’s experience through Adult Social Care.

We will work in partnership with other organisations collaboratively, to avoid duplication, to share learning and feedback and develop services in an integrated way.

We will also use the expertise and skills of voluntary organisations in ensuring that we are able to reach and engage with a wider range of citizens across Coventry. We want to learn from other organisations and ensure what we do supports 'Making in Real' principles.

Getting involved

The range and options available for getting involved are outlined on these Getting Involved in Adult Social Care webpages.

For more information about our approach or to discuss being involved in shaping Adult Social Care please email getinvolvedasc@coventry.gov.uk.

Download and print the Adult Social Care - Engagement, Involvement and Co-Production - It's Our Approach leaflet

ADASS have developed a new guide around co-production which can be downloaded and printed.