Growth and development.pdf

To attract staff into social care the Council has improved advertising and notification of vacancies(including an e-mail database) and adopted more consistent and efficient recruitment procedures.To introduce more flexible employment, the Council has launched a pilot project for portfolioworking by support staff who can work within the department’s units and also provide homecare.It is hoped that the strengthening of management experience and expertise in the discreteareas of work, i.e. Criminal Justice, Community Care and Children’s Services, will improve staffsupport and have a positive effect on retention of staff.7. Modernising servicesHighland Council has had long experience with two minority communities – Gaelic speakers inthe west, and travellers, particularly during the summer months. This has provided insights forworking with some black and ethnic minority families resident in the Highlands. The Council’sapproach to developing a Race Equality Scheme is based on a corporate equality policy, but itremains to mainstream the Scheme within social work services.Digital Highland embraces modernising initiatives such as e-procurement, a CustomerRelationship Management system and support for delivering services in Highland’s 8 areas.Social work services have not been immediately involved in these developments, the priorityhaving been to address the needs of routine high-volume customers.The Social Work Service is upgrading its client information system. Most social work staff haveeither a desktop PC or a laptop (given the large amount of travel for some staff). Residential andday centre units are linked to the Council’s Intranet. Internet access is provided in allestablishments and offices to Team Managers and Strategic staff.8. The FutureThe Council and its health partner now need to carry through into purposeful planning andimplementation within measurable time their agreement to align budgets and integratemanagement of community care services.The Council should prepare an action plan to bring together a series of measures to improveand make more flexible the home care service, taking account of the diversity of needs andcircumstances across Highland, and to indicate the resource priorities required to implementthe changes. This would support the strategic decision to shift the emphasis of provision ofcare for older people from residential to community-based options.To enhance services to people with a learning disability and mental health, the positive lessonsof improved joint working between social work and health care staff derived from experiencein Ross and Cromarty should be applied to the other 7 local areas of Highland.In addition, the quality of learning disability services would benefit from closer links betweensocial and health care and education and training interests.Now that it has been decided to use a locally prepared tool for single shared assessment, theCouncil can now determine the necessary processes and provide training for its use inpreparation for implementing new arrangements by a target date.150