Growth and development.pdf

8. The FutureThe partnership agreement between the Council and the Health Board – Renfrewshire Joint Care– provides a strong platform to plan and implement improvements in the range of communitycare services. It is the result of gradual confidence-building in the approach adopted to theJoint Future agenda. It should achieve greater transparency about resources, which isparticularly demanding for the Health Board which has to work with five local authorities.There is, however, a formidable agenda to be tackled, notably:• practical measures to reduce persistent delays in discharges of older people from hospital;• agreement on funding for increased community-based support, particularly for older people;• completion of a best value review of community-based learning disability services, whichwill include the modernisation of traditional day services, and decisions on the strategicdevelopment of these services and the resource priorities required to implement it;• developing local area co-ordination for children and adults with learning disabilities;• based on the review of the joint mental health strategy group, decisions on the futuredevelopment of and resource priorities for community-based mental health services;• plans prepared in collaboration with education and housing departments for the transition ofyoung people with learning disabilities to adult services, and decisions on their implementation;• completion of preparations for the introduction of single shared assessment – notably therole of health staff in financial assessment and the practical application of the assessmenttool to different client groups and in different settings, such as nursing homes;• development of a joint strategic approach to information management and technologyplans, particularly technology support for information sharing and other modernised workingmethods;• preparation of a strategic plan for sensory impairment services, to consolidate the benefitsalready achieved through joint working with audiology services, eye clinics and ophthalmologyservices;• implementation of children’s integrated services; and• consolidation of the work of the new Inter-Authority Criminal Justice Grouping.A positive improvement in children’s services could be secured if the Council presses on withits intentions to expand the pool of foster carers, develop the shared care respite service andreduce the use of residential care.To consolidate the progress made in improving the education of looked after children, theCouncil should:• complete linking the information systems of social work and schools;• formulate a joint policy on promoting the education of looked after children; and• implement training and development opportunities for education and social work staff whowork with those children.To build on the progress already achieved by the dedicated throughcare team and its strongworking links with other local agencies, the Council needs to identify in consultation the rangeof services needed by care leavers and establish a budget for them.216