Growth and development.pdf

MorayHome care could throw up future problems due to competition from the local private sector.The Council aims to make home care more attractive, by giving team leaders fixed hours anddeveloping a joint team with community nurses based on a Finnish model.7. Modernising servicesMoray Council has a small ethnic minority population including people from the Ukraine, Turkeyand China. Recently the Council subscribed to an agency able to give translation services.The Council has decided to await guidance from the Commission for Race Equality (Scotland)before taking steps to prepare a corporate Race Equality Scheme.Moray’s Open Door project, funded through Modernising Government, is designed to providestaff, patients and citizens with access to a range of health and community information andservices, through contact points, access centres, and intranet and internet sites. A pilot one-stopshop is now open in Forres. Its database can be linked to CareFirst, the community servicesdepartment’s client information system. The Open Door project has outlets within health premisesin the Moray area, but direct information exchange with health systems has still to be achieved.The department invested heavily in client information systems following local governmentreorganisation, and programme modules are being upgraded on a regular basis. The Councilhas a mature intranet, and internet access is available to all frontline staff in the communityservices department.8. The FutureMoray has a growing population of older people, and there are indications that home caresupport falls some way short of what the present population needs. Completion of the reviewof home care services is now urgent, so that the Council and its health partners can:• prepare a strategic plan for improving the range of home care services to meet theexpected growth in demand;• assess the most cost-effective ways of meeting local needs;• identify the resource priorities required to implement them; and• deliver direct benefits to older people in the area within measurable time.To complement the progress made in mental health services, the Council and its health partnersshould plan the linkages between acute and community services for those people who requiremore complex care but live at home.Sensory impairment services in Moray are patchy and the Council should consider undertakingwith health partners a strategic review of developments in the service and identify resourcepriorities to implement them.As a guide to future action in dealing with questions of race the Council should commissionpreparatory work for the development of a full race equality scheme, for example, auditing theprovision of social work services to ethnic minorities and the development of race awarenesstraining among staff.175