Adult social care information and advice are essential and getting them right means that people are more likely to be able to make informed choices and access the right support at the right time and place. This can make a big difference for someone and ultimately can improve their health and wellbeing. It also helps councils to manage and prioritise their assessment processes and resources.
In partnership with councils, sector organisations and Socitm Advisory, PCH are working to improve information and advice in adult social care between now and March 2024. Part of our support for Working with People, this includes:
A toolkit to support councils
We are developing a toolkit to support councils to improve their information and advice offer, drawing on and promoting existing good practice and innovation. This will include guidance to develop an information and advice strategy and to ensure councils have a valuable directory of resources and support for their residents. We will engage with councils and user communities, understanding user needs and the routes by which they are accessing services and support.
Community of practice
An online community of practice has been established on KHub for adult social care information and advice, including information and advice managers, practitioners, front door colleagues, communications, and digital/data leads.
The next meeting will be scheduled from May 2024. Recordings from previous meetings and toolkit resources in progress are available on KHub. Please join the online community using the link and email [email protected] to register for the meetings.
We are keen for as many councils as possible to be involved. Over time we hope the community of practice will grow to include staff from other council services, supporting unified approaches to information and advice.
Online events
With guest speakers and question and answer sessions, our online events programme covered various aspects of information and advice. Full recordings can be accessed from the ‘Webinars’ folder of the online community of practice library on KHub. Presentation materials can be accessed below:
Previous webinar presentations
- Care costs and self-funding, 15 September 2023
- Information, advocacy and rights, 18 September 2023
- Partnership working to promote community activities and support, 28 September 2023
- Digital inclusion as an enabler, 24 January 2024
- Care technology opportunities, 14 February 2024
- Co-producing and improving communication, 13 March 2024
Community navigation and social prescribing networks
We are working with community navigation and social prescribing networks to help build stronger links between their services and adult social care. We will explore the different approaches across the country and aim to develop a good understanding of where there are issues.
Direct support for councils
PCH is working with councils to improve adult social care information and advice services between now and the end of March 2024. As part of this, Socitm Advisory are providing support to a handful of councils across a range of themes through a facilitated self-assessment. Curators of Change are supporting further councils in their approaches to supporting co-production, accessibility and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Wider sector learning is being captured and will feed into the information and advice toolkit to support all councils from April 2024.