Manchester Learning Disability Partnership Board

w w w. p a r t n e r s h i p b o a r d . o r g

Issue 69 • Free • Every two months

January and February 2016

Hospital Liason Minutes of the November 2015 meeting

Service Audit Team

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Date of next meetingsTuesday 12 January 201610:30am to 12:30pm

We meet at Manchester People First’s offices:3 Broughton Street Cheetham Hill Manchester, M8 8RF

You can write to the Board at:Learning Disability Partnership BoardMoss Side District OfficeBold Street, Moss Side, ManchesterM16 7AD

≈∆ Phone or Fax: (0161) 839-3700

Email: mcrpeoplefirst@googlemail.com

The Partnership Board’s web site is at:

www.partnershipboard.org

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What we did at the November 2015 meeting of the Partnership Board

From the last meetingWe had a presentation about the Deprivation of LibertySafeguards at our September meeting.Anna told us that Think Quality held a consultation with 13 self-advocates on 13 October.

The main points were:The Law Commission’s easy read version was not easy tounderstand.People thought laws should apply to the person, not theplace. This would mean for example that Day Services would be covered.There were concerns about advocacy. Citizen and peer advocacy need to carry on.The Law Commission thanked Think Quality for theirthoughts and will mention Manchester in printed responses.

Provider updateCatherine spoke for the Providers.

At the last Provider Forum they spoke about:Rising wage costs from the Living Wage and the ruling aboutthe Minimum Wage being paid over night.

Some providers were being asked to do capacity assessments,often about finances and capacity to decide where to live. They worried that there may be a conflict of interest forproviders who do this. Also it is not consistent, as some Care Managers do not ask them to do assessments.

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Statutory AdvocacySally Young from the Gaddum Centre spoke about the newManchester Advocacy Hub. This started in April when theCare Act became law.

The Hub is run by the Gaddum Centre and Better Things. It is there to give statutory advocacy when a person is havingan assessment, care and support planning, a safeguardinginvestigation or review and needs someone to advocate for them.

The advocate has a duty to challenge decisions made by thelocal authority if the person is not happy with them, or if thedecision is not in their best interest.

The Gaddum Centre keep a record of referrals that are made.Only 4 of the 25 referrals they have had came from peoplewith a learning disability. Sally thinks there are some people who are entitled tostatutory advocacy but are not getting it.

Some people have been worried about the loss of other typesof advocacy such as citizen and case advocacy.

Manchester City Council is funding the Independent LivingFund until April 2016. Everyone who is getting ILF will havetheir care reviewed before then. Sally thought everyone being reviewed should get statutoryadvocacy.

The Advocacy Hub must get its referrals from professionals.The Care Act says workers need to decide if someone needsreferring for advocacy, but the threshold is lower than whendeciding if someone has capacity.

Sally is waiting for the Advocacy Board to meet.

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Anna was worried if people are assessed as not being eligiblefor statutory services, they will not be able to get advocacy.But these are the people who are most vulnerable. People need to learn about their rights.

Stephen from Manchester People First said they had held a Care Act workshop for their members and other self- advocates. A lot of professionals wanted to come. MPF said they couldattend if they brought a person with a learning disability, butnone did.

Lisa Jones agreed that there was a very big gap for people who need services but are not entitled.

Sally said they give advice over the phone to people. They might advise people to go back to the Contact Centreand ask for an assessment. They cannot signpost as there are not really any other services.

Bernie said it seemed obvious that if someone is assessed asnot being eligible for services they should get an advocate.

Nigel said if someone was being assessed they were entitled to advocacy. But a lot of the time, the decision is being madebefore the assessment is done.

Awareness needs raising for Care Managers. There is e-Learning for them. This week Managers are gettingtraining, which will include advocacy.

The Safeguarding Team are going to be more involved inauditing assessments. They will look to see if advocates are used in appropriate cases and see if the question about advocacy has beenanswered on the initial assessment document.

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Sally told us that some people have been told on the phonethat they cannot have an assessment, even though the lawsays they have a right to one.

Lisa wondered about capacity building and what informationabout their rights was given to people and families who werebeing assessed.

What can be done to make sure people do not lose out nowthere are no generic advocacy services? These were preventative.

At the end of our discussion, Councillor Andrews asked thatthese concerns were taken to the relevant council officers tomake sure the council is doing what it should do.

Options for supportCatherine told us about the new placement finding service.To get a placement referral, people must have an up to dateassessment and have a personal budget. The Placement Teamwill email all providers telling them what demands a customerhas, so they can decide if they would like to offer support.

This might not happen if someone needed an emergencyplacement.

Anna asked what provision there was for families to take theindividual budget and organise their own care package fortheir family member? People should be told this is an option and Catherine willlook into this.

Hospital Liaison RoleKaren Phelan has the learning disability liaison role at CentralManchester Foundation Trust. She told us her job is to:Raise awareness of hospital staff about the flagging systemand communication needs.

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If people have a flag on their records, Karen will meet themand their family.

Make sure that hospital staff can find the ‘traffic lights’ onthe computer records and passports in the nursing files.Look at what reasonable adjustments can be made to the 8 areas of the care plan. Run staff training including autism awareness and learningdisabilities.Make sure that accessible communication is available. For example using the widget website, or contacting theCommunity Learning Disability Team. Karen can make surepeople are first on the list for procedures, or have a side room.

Anna and Manchester People First suggested that peoplewith a learning disability could help give the training.

Karen is putting together a pack of useful information, whichwill include details of Talbot House and Help and SupportManchester website.

Karen is going to meet regularly with her colleagues Ruth BellPennine Trust, (North Manchester) and Paul ButterworthUniversity Hospital of South Manchester (Wythenshawe).

Service Audit AssistantsJoanne Hickinbotham, Stephen Blake, Christopher Kenny,Barry Hill and David Dunnico work for the Service AuditProject run by Manchester People First. MPF have a contractwith Manchester City Council’s Contracts department to visitadults with a learning disability who get services and askthem what they think of the services they get.

The team are employees of MPF. Four of them have learningdisabilities and are supported by two others.It is seen as good practice that services are peer reviewed.

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They write reports for the Service Commissioners who addthese to the other reports and inspections that are done.

They have only inspected services run by independentproviders, not Council run network houses.

Most of the people they spoke to liked their homes. But not many had had much choice about where they lived or who they lived with.

They found a lot of people faced communication barriers.This made them more vulnerable and made it harder for their wishes to be taken into account.

Many of the people the Service Auditors saw, knew who theservice managers were and did see them.Few people had formal advocates and were not usually ableto pick their own staff.

They said how important it was to have regular staff who theyknew. They were not happy if they had cover staff who didnot know them.

Some people had become more isolated and did not seetheir friends because of cuts to day services. A lot of people do not go away on holiday anymore.

There does not seem to be much work being done to meetlong-term ambitions, such as getting a place of their own.

The Partnership Board has its own web site. You can download any issue of our newsletter and listen to an audio version of our latest issue.

www.partnershipboard.org