Sharing your experiences of Community and Enablement Services
Healthwatch Hertfordshire has been working with Newton Europe to ensure service user experiences fed into their work on improving community and acute services.
Our approach
Our focus was on community services, and more particularly enablement services. As part of this we held a focus group which brought together people that identify either as an older person who require support to maintain their daily living, or a person with physical or mental disabilities who uses these services.
What people told us:
- There was appreciation of how hard and dedicated staff/carers are
- There are lots of hand offs between different professionals during the course of someone’s care, with a lack of clarity over who is accountable for the individual. A particular group of organisations highlighted were district and borough councils, and their role in Direct Payment Grants or housing/adaptation grants
- There isn’t usually a single person who is responsible, accountable and can oversee the whole of the individual’s care and support.
- There was a feeling that people needed to push for updates, and that this was not a reasonable expectation (especially of vulnerable people). It was reflected that this sometimes occurred due to front line staff not having the authority to make certain decisions – triggering a long management chain or approval process.
- An individual’s plan for their care isn’t always clear – when the next step is known (which it isn’t always) then there is not always an expected date at which it will be complete.
- The group felt that they aren’t always given the option to genuinely input into their own plan and be listened to in order to make sure it works for them at the appropriate time, often being consulted too late when information had become out of date.
- There were also concerns raised about how holistic assessment are, particularly taking the roles and needs of carers into account.
The above information has been shared with Hertfordshire County Council and we are exploring the best way to continue for these voices to be heard.
You can find out more about the work of Newton Europe in Adult Care Services here.
