Care at Home Inquiry: Feedback event with GM Health & Social Care Partnership

Photograph of deliberative session from the Care at Home Inquiry with logos

In April 2019, the Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership (GMHSC) hosted a feedback event to look at how recommendations from our Care at Home Inquiry inform the shape of their Transformation programme.

Co-ordinated jointly by Shared Future CIC and GMHSC, this by-invitation event explored the links between Inquiry recommendations and the GMHSC Living Well at Home programme. A range of stakeholders from the original inquiry attended, including representatives from the reference group, facilitators, commentators, and inquiry participants.

Living Well at Home: recommendations and action

Gill Walters, Partnership Programme Manager in GMHSC's Adult Social Care Transformation Team, mapped out the alignment between the recommendations and the themes of the Transformation programme. Together with other colleagues from the Partnership, Gill introduced the range of Trailblazer initiatives now beginning across the Greater Manchester region. These aim to accelerate change in response to a range of challenges, including key points identified during the Inquiry.

This work includes re-examining models of care provision, system reform (away from time & task), and technology and innovation. The Inquiry recommendations had provided particular impetus to pursue connections with related work on housing and healthy ageing.

Anything else?

Some present urged fuller consideration of a recommendation around early action (e.g. normalising discussion about and planning for future care needs through school and family conversation). There was wide agreement that ideal care at home would support what makes life worth living and not simply keeping people alive; a popular example was empowering care workers to assist with pet care where required.

So what?

One of the inquiry participants reported a new confidence that the Inquiry had made a difference—commenting on a handout:

“This is really helpful . . . I’m really impressed how [the Partnership] picked out recommendations and mapped them against the work they’re doing. My worry about doing everything is that it doesn’t get to people who make decisions, that it doesn’t get taken on board. This is a useful synergy of our recommendations mixed in with trailblazing, so I can see we were helpful to the process.”

Email addresses were exchanged, and it was evident that the conversations will continue--not least through a further event on Deliberative Commissioning sponsored by GMHSC and NW ADASS in National Co-Production Week.

Report written by Jam & Justice Impact Officer, Iona Hine.