The Supporting People Outcomes
Framework.
Where are we now?
Where are we going?
Having developed 11 Outcome
measures in 2009 and piloted the ‘SP
outcomes framework’ in 12 Local
Authority areas in Wales it has now
been decided by the Welsh
Government that Outcomes collection
will become a mandatory part of the
Supporting People programme from
April 2012.
Following the Aylward review’s
recommendation that
a more robust approach should be
adopted to evidence the outcomes of
the SP programme and less emphasis
placed on measuring process we felt
confident that we were moving in the
right direction.
We listened to feedback from both
Support Providers and SP teams in the
pilot areas and it was generally felt that
the scaling questions of ‘achieved’,
‘partially achieved’ and ‘not achieved’
were not useful for reporting outcomes
and that further measures should be
added
As such The Outcomes Delivery Group
tasked a sub-group to reword this
scale. Whilst the exact wording to be
used has yet to be agreed the new
scale is likely to look similar to the
following and will contain 5 scaling
questions....
1.
The goal for the service user at this stage is to prevent or
minimise harm to the service user and to others and to develop
trust with the service user.
At this stage the service user may be unwilling to discuss this
area of their life or may be difficult to engage.
Service users at this stage should be supported in preventing
the situation from getting ‘any worse’ until progression in this
area can begin.
2.
At this stage the service user may be willing to discuss this area of their life
however, may be unclear of how to make any progress in this area and need
considerable support from their support worker in order to take the next steps.
The service may be being supporting the service user to increase stability and
give them access to resources that may help them set their goal. Service users
may need considerable support in order to get them to accept that they can
control this area of their life.
This may be the case where support is in its initial stages whereby due to a range
of factors e,g risk, crisis impacts, health, understanding, prioritisation of support
issues, the support worker may be taking the lead in a number of life areas.
3.
At this stage the service user will have started to believe that they can
make a difference to this area of their life and will accept the use of
specific, time-bound goals in order to achieve their expected outcome in
this area.
This stage should focus on encouraging the service user to work
towards achievable goals on their own, whilst providing support if they
should need it but not ‘doing for them’.
Service users should be supported to reflect on what has gone well and
positively supported when things haven’t gone so well.
4.
The service user should be supported to deal with
difficulties themselves and to become more selfreliant and knowledgeable of how to seek support
from an organisation without their support worker.
5.
The service user should now be able to manage most issues in this area
on their own. They should be accessing services without their support
worker the majority of the time and should be supported to understand
when/if they need extra support in this area.
The service user should now feel that they are confident enough to start to
supporting themselves in dealing with issues in this area of their life.
In long-term services The service user will accept that they may always need support in this
area but they are maintaining their optimum level of independence in
achieving their goal or preventing a loss of optimum independence by
having long term support.
The Outcomes Framework scaling
measures are designed to capture the
‘Journey of Change’ – and are intended
to be a scale outlining the key steps in
a transition from dependence to
independence or maintenance (in
longer term services).
It’s
not
perfect
but……
We are starting to be able to collect
information about what support
workers are doing to help service
users to reach their goals and to
concentrate less on how they do it
and what forms they fill in
This enables us to present ‘real’ service
user stories to stakeholders and to
understand where barriers must be
overcome to improve services and
provide as seamless a service as
possible to service users.
There is recognition from the Outcomes
Delivery group that the outcomes
framework should seen as an ‘opener’
to having meaningful conversations
between SP teams and support
providers to uncover how outcomes can
be improved for service users or to
share best practice.
The framework can not be used as a stand alone
tool.
The Welsh Government will still require that data
around voids, equalities etc be returned to them
via the local Collaborative Committee, this
information will be used at a local and national
level for planning and to demonstrate ongoing
need for services.
It is also expected that the Steering Group will
recommend the commissioning of a robust programme
of external research.
This is likely to be a longitudinal study to be conducted
over a 7 year period and to concentrate on; the
effectiveness of the programme, the social return on
investment and the lasting impact of services on
people/communities.
Cymorth Cymru and the SPIN co-ordinator
are supporting the national roll-out of the
Outcomes Framework by facilitating a
number of events to be held regionally
where best practice can be shared,
awareness raised and questions can be
answered where needed. All LA’s and
Support Providers will be contacted about
these events very soon.