Enabling people to live independently
People receiving support from adult social care and their carers
Adult Social Care provides a wide range of services to people across the City. Where people require input from social care, we work with people to maximise their independence to ensure they receive the right level of support they need in the right place.
As of 31 March 2024, there were 3,650 people receiving long-term ongoing support from adult social care (a rate of 1,319 per 100,000). The number of people we support with ongoing care and support, is a good indicator of how successful we are as a Council at supporting people to remain independent within the community. The service works in a way that promotes people’s independence, thereby reducing reliance on social care support. However, the number of people referred to the service for care and support continues to rise. This is placing increasing demand on a workforce, which is facing recruitment challenges. Consequently, a risk management prioritisation system is applied to ensure that available resources are targeted appropriately. The percentage of annual reviews completed for 2023/2024 is 55.6% showing an improvement from 49.2% in the previous year.
Phils Story – Case Study
What was the situation?
Phil is a 48-year-old man who was born blind and with good hearing, he attended a specialist school for children who are blind. Phil also has a history of low mood and self-harm which included him hitting his ears which he has done since being a child
which is a coping mechanism but which unfortunately caused permanent hearing loss and he now wears bilateral hearing aids.
Phil is therefore deafblind. Deaf blindness is a combination of sight and hearing loss that affects a person’s ability to communicate, access information and get around.
Phil receives an individual Service Fund (ISF) and manages his own care and support needs with Penderels Trust supporting via a Direct payment managed account. An ISF is a flexible way in which a person can pay for their care and support arrangements, similar to how a Direct payment works.
What did Adult Social Care do?
Phil was subject to a safeguarding enquiry as he was being emotionally and financially abused by someone who had befriended him, this led to great anxiety for Phil and him having arrears for his rent.
A social worker supported Phil to identify what we wanted to happen. Phil said he wanted the abuse to stop and would like to be more independent and access the community as easily as sighted people do. Phil feels that being blind holds him back from being able to live life how he would like to.
Phils social worker was a qualified deafblind assessor having received specialist training to assess the needs of deafblind people.
So, a safeguarding plan was put in place, which included the support of the police and we agreed to gradually transfer his package of care to a specialist support agency, Deafblind Enablement, where all support workers are qualified deafblind Communicator-Guides. These are highly trained to be the eyes and ears of people living with dual sensory issues.
What difference did it make and how are things now?
Phil’s Communicator-Guide told us how things are now.
Since Phil has had his Communicator-Guides his world and confidence is expanding. Phil was in a strict routine of going places only he knew about, eating the same foods and visiting the same places. He didn't have the confidence to integrate new ideas or places. After having conversations with Phil we discovered lots of things we could give him access to information on. He is a lover of cats, so we took him the cat cafe in the city, which is now a favourite place of his, he didn't know places like that existed. We explained the many restaurants in the city and now Turtle Bay and the Rosebud Cafe are a favourite of his. We arranged meetings at the job shop, as Phil was discussing he wants to find purpose in his life, he is enjoying the confidence course that was offered and potential volunteer opportunities. Phil is a fantastic musician and we have been supporting getting him voluntary 'gigs' at care homes in Rugby and Coventry. We found standalone pianos in Leamington at the train station where he now likes to play, and he's enjoyed members of the public coming across to sing whilst he plays. The Lief cafe is a new discovery for him and the managers asked him to play on a Saturday. The team work together to make sure that he is well supported in his endeavours, He loves to spread joy through music and it is in his words “his therapy”.
The best thing I have witnessed with Phil is when we were able to support him to go to Theatre as he hadn't been, there was an audio described performance and he was very excited and dressed in his suit. As we were waiting there, was another blind man from Nuneaton sitting next to him and I was able to introduce them. They arranged drinks after the show and the audio describer of the performance joined us for a drink in the bar after. Phil was so happy. Phil's new friend called to arrange Christmas drinks. Phil’s world has expanded so much that interaction with others and feeling part of the community enables him to have wonderful memories.
Phil’s social worker said ‘Working with Phil initially was daunting as he had been living for many years without the appropriate level of support and this, directly lead him to make many unsafe/risky decisions. I researched extensively to further understand how and why such decisions were being made to comprehend what drove these. Working together with Phil we were then able to create a package of care that worked with him’
It was a pleasure to have worked with Phil and seeing how much his situation has transformed with the appropriate support, is the cherry on the cake!
Satisfaction with adult social care
In 2023/24, 64.5% of adult social care and support service users responding to a survey expressed satisfaction in the service they received, which is an improvement from 60.5% in 2022/23. Performance is comparable with national data of 64.4%. In addition, we continue to seek views of those in receipt of services and listen to feedback from people throughout the year, not just via the annual survey. Adult social care has an equal responsibility for anyone providing unpaid care within the city. Anyone providing necessary care to another adult is entitled to a Carer’s assessment. 33.2% of carers expressed overall satisfaction with adult social care in 2023/24, which is a slight improvement on 32% when the survey was last completed in 2021/22.
We continue to increase our engagement with the community and have held a number of ‘ASC engagement events’ in various locations across the city. This engagement activity has enabled the council to raise awareness of the Adult Social Care offer and how it can be accessed.
Short-term reablement services
In 2023/24, 77% of people received a short-term service with little or no ongoing support. This improvement from 75% in 2022/23, is comparable with the national average. Our promoting independence and therapeutic approach is something which Coventry is proud of, because it enables people to maximise their independence and stay within their family home for as long as possible, thereby improving outcomes. Our effectiveness in this area is evidenced by the relatively low numbers of people requiring ongoing care and support in Coventry. This year we worked with health partners across organisations as part of the Improving Lives programme. This has demonstrated that by co-locating and working in partnership we can deliver an improved and more responsive coordination and delivery of health and care within an individual’s own home when urgent and emergency care is required.
The aim of this programme is to deliver integrated care that supports people in Coventry with urgent need by providing a service based on what they need rather than just being based on the existing services we have. The programme also ensures that the people in Coventry receive care in the community for as long as possible and only access care when necessary. The implementation of local integrated Teams is demonstrating positive outcomes for the people of Coventry.
Preventing and relieving cases of homelessness
The council has secured a successful prevention or relief outcome for 1,164 households who were owed a Homelessness duty in the year 2023/2024 against a target of 1,150. The service remains committed to preventing homelessness and providing early intervention despite significant challenges; and continued increased demand for homelessness assistance which is in line with national trends. The main reasons for losing settled accommodation in Coventry continues to be the end of private rented accommodation, domestic abuse, and being asked to leave by family members. There has been a significant increase in demand for the homeless service. However, this is too often at the point where homelessness has occurred and cannot be prevented. Where early intervention is not successful, residents face fewer options in seeking alternative accommodation, due to a largely competitive private rental market and limited alternative options as the number of available social lettings and privately rented properties decreases annually. The target for 2024/2025 is 1250 successful outcomes for those owed a homelessness duty.