Community feedback centre stage as council looks to reform adult social care

The council believes that by placing a greater focus on ensuring services are designed with users rather than imposing changes on them, the council will be better able to provide the best possible service and address the underlying issues rather than simply cutting budgets as a reaction to government cuts.

Key points:

• The massive pre-consultation phase reached up to 10,000 people locally
• Results show support for change - details now need to be worked through together
• Harrow 's open, thorough consultation process praised by the voluntary sector
• The full consultation has now been launched

Angela Dias, Harrow Association of Disabled said:

"The current consultation is making real attempts to ensure that local people who use services have enough information to make a real choice, and is carrying out clear and transparent Equality Impact Assessments which are updated at every stage of the process.  To date, it appears to be the most genuine statutory sector consultation I've seen in Harrow .

The most important end result is that people are not adversely affected by any resulting changes, and I really believe that there is more hope of this with a good consultation process.  I would urge local people to express their views because the indications at this point is that they will be listened to."

During  the pre-consultation exercise, more than 10,000 users, cares and voluntary organisation representatives had the opportunity to give their views on the future of adult services through face-to-face meetings, feedback forms, telephone calls, emails and questionnaires.

Their feedback showed support for change despite some of the very tough decisions that have to be made. Phase two of the consultation will now focus more on gathering qualitative information through conversations and face-to-face meetings, discussing the proposed changes in more depth and detail. 

Both the scale of this consultation and the fact that it has been community led and focused is seen as both pioneering and innovative, and  has been praised by the voluntary sector.

Here are some of the findings from the pre-consultation:

61 % of respondents were in favour of a change to how the Cost of care is calculated

74 % to the meals-on-wheels service

79 % to the way transport is provided to community services

74 % to consult on eligibility to discretionary freedom passes and taxi cards

The full consultation began on 16th May and will run until 12th August. The areas for consultation are: 

Residents' financial contributions for the care they receive

• Cost of Meals-on-Wheels
• Transport to community activities
• Eligibility criteria for concessionary travel and charging for lost/damaged passes

As with the pre-consultation, the community steering group will remain closely involved. The group includes; service users, voluntary organisation representatives, council officials, carer champions, LINk, NHS and union represenatives (GMB and Unison).

The group has met 26 times so far, this includes meetings of the subgroups on each consultation area with future monthly steering group meetings planned until September.

A further three public meetings are also planned for July as well as six meetings with targeted groups such as carers, meals-on-wheels users and mental health service users over the next two months.

The group plays a key role in proactively involving the wider community in the process and has been praised by the voluntary sector.

Avani Modasia, Age UK, Harrow said:

"This is the first consultation of its kind that I have been involved in and it has really made a difference to how people feel about the process. By being directly involved in the steering group I have been able to put across the questions and concerns that might impact on older people who we represent at Age UK, Harrow . There has been a lot of input in the process so far from the community and voluntary sector partners and a lot of goodwill and I hope this continues." 

It will continue to play a vital part in the full consultation.

Cllr Margaret Davine, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing said:

"Several months ago I promised we would take our time to make sure we got this right because how we support residents in need when we are facing cuts to expenditure and services is too important to rush and I am committed to protecting and supporting our residents where ever possible.

More than ever it's vital we look at how we can make the most of our resources and work with other organisations to reshape our services for the future.  Promoting resident and user involvement in how we set about changing services speaks to the very heart of everything we are striving to achieve for residents - improving people's lives both now and for the long term.

This is an ambitious public consultation and these proposed changes are being discussed openly and honestly with the entire community. The pre-consultation phase was a massive undertaking with stakeholders, community groups and individuals contacted for their views. This was giving local people a genuine say.

We are now moving to the part of the process where we will be working with residents on the finer detail. I am committed to continuing the conversation and more importantly to listen and act on what they have to say."

While the pre-consultation phase gave the opportunity for broad public opinion, this second phase will now focus on the actual changes put forward in a more in-depth, detailed way.

You can have your say on the full consultation by visiting www.harrow.gov.uk/adultserviceconsultation or by email at adultserviceconsultation@harrow.gov.uk or by telephoning 020 8424 1017 or by writing to FREEPOST RSKK XXBR-UCHU, Harrow Council, Adults Services Consultation PO Box 65, Harrow HA1 2XG.

The three public event days arranged to discuss the consultation are as follows;

1st July from 2-5pm at Harrow Arts Centre, 14th July from 10am to 1pm in the Members Lounge, Civic Centre and again on 18th July from 5-8pm in the Members Lounge. (Please email or call to book your place).