Co-production projects

A Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) is being developed for the Adult Social Care and Health (ASCH) department.

The framework is a collection of things that will help us know how well we are supporting people who use our services. It will detail the activities, measures and evidence required for us know how well we are doing and where we may fall short, to make sure we have plans in place to put it right. 

Who is involved? 

The Our Voice group comprising of people with lived experience of services, Group Managers from Nottinghamshire County Council and Officers from the Adult Social Care and Health Co-production group. 

What have we done so far? 

As a direct result of our co-production, we have adopted the Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP) Making It Real themes and supporting ‘I’ and ‘We’ statements within the QAF.   This was because during co-production sessions it became apparent that these were written in a way that resonated much better with those involved. 

The Our Voice group are members of our QAF Task and Finish Group, and one of the group representatives is co-chair.  We have reviewed elements of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) best practice statements with Our Voice members, to develop our Local Authority Self-Assessment Information Return (LASAIR). The group’s co-chair has written the Foreword for the LASAIR. 

The Big Conversation listening events have been held across all districts of Nottinghamshire. These will help us move on to explore how we can identify and work with a wider group of people, who we provide services to, so we can understand and learn from their experience. 

The Practice Development Group of ASCH staff has been helping us develop the LASAIR and scoring how we are doing against the CQC best practice statements. 

What are we planning to do next? 

We will continue to work with Our Voice to help us implement, evaluate, and monitor the development of the QAF and establish next steps. 

Hold further workshops to review elements of CQC best practice statements to develop the LASAIR and assessment of how we are doing against each statement.  

Review quality assurance activity with Our Voice against the TLAP themes to ensure it is aligned to Making it Real. 

Develop a Making it Real Board which will be a section of our ASCH Performance Board. People and carers with lived experience will be invited to attend to get their views on areas of focus and to co-produce and track action plans. This will grow our co-production network and build in the expectation that people will be involved in designing and developing services as business as usual.  

The ASCH Practice Development Group will continue to support us with developing our self-assessment. 

What are people saying? 

“A piece of work I have particularly enjoyed being part of is developing the Quality Assurance Framework.  I felt as an expert by experience that I helped influence the direction this was going in and it is good to see Making It Real now at the heart of it”. 
Ed (Our Voice member and co-chair of QAF Task & Finish Group)  

“It is vital that this framework is co-produced as much as possible, as this is going to shape everything that the Council does in the future. It can be difficult at times knowing what all the strands are and how they fit together, and working to very tight timelines etc, but the more we are involved I believe the easier this will become.  This is an extremely important piece of work, that I find very rewarding” 
Dean (Our Voice member) 

“Co-production is a work-in-progress which I believe is beginning to happen with the Quality Assurance Framework. We have a voice and are listened to so that staff have started to look outwards to those who use the services rather than just internally at their processes. We are starting to have honest and real dialogue leading to greater respect for each other.” 
Alyson (Our Voice member) 

“Co-production is key to ensuring that we work in partnership with the people and carers who use Adult Social Care services in Nottinghamshire. I am finding the joint work with the co-production group on the framework inspiring and thought-provoking. It can be challenging at times but nothing this important is ever easy! I am looking forward to continuing with this work and want to thank the co-production group for their honesty, clarity, and positivity.” 
Emma (Group Manager, Ageing Well Service) 

If you’re interested in finding out more or joining a co-production project, please contact the project lead chris.wall@nottscc.gov.uk

Who is involved?

Local people and carers who have direct experience of Adult Care Financial Services have been involved.

This is alongside managers and staff in the Direct Payments Team, Residential Assessments Team, Community Assessments Team, Client Finance Team and ICT and Communications Team, who together are part of Adult Care Financial Services. As well as senior leaders within Nottinghamshire County Council responsible for these services and for implementing the Social Care Reforms set out in the government White Paper: People at the Heart of Care.

Lastly, it has included a wide range of staff and stakeholders from different places like the Complaints Team, Customer Service Team and Social Care Teams.

What have we done so far?

We have:

• held listening events, gathered information and analysed lots of data
• reflected on complaints so we can learn from them and use these insights to help us to improve
• identified what local residents with direct experience of Adult Care Financial Services including carers want to focus on, where they feel we are now and where they want us to get to
• co-designed staff guidance on disability related expenses and reviewed this with people with lived experience to see how it is working
• procured a web-based tool to complement paper-based approaches, improve residents experience of financial assessments and meet people’s preferences in how they access information
• established a task and finish group made up of people with lived experience including carers to support the review. Members of the task and finish group developed a set of Communication Commitments.

What are we planning to do next?

• members of the task and finish group are co-producing forms and guidance within the web-based tool
• monitor delivery through the Quality Assurance Framework
• impact will be measured through listening conversations, phone calls and observation of practice.

What are people saying?

Residents are saying that it is really important that:

• support is available so people to have the right finance in place
• people are only required to pay what they can afford
• processes are simple
• information is easy to understand
• everyone is seen as an individual and treated with compassion and respect
• action is taken to prevent people getting into debt.

Staff are saying they:

• welcome the opportunity to be part of the review
• feel positive about the plan to create space to do things differently and that time will be spent on understanding and discovering how things are and the challenges they are facing
• can relate to the things that residents with direct experience have said are important.

If you’re interested in finding out more or joining a co-production project, please contact the project lead rachel.egan@nottscc.gov.uk