PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT:
REPORT ON ACTION LEARNING SETS
Authors
:
Katie Carew-Robinson
Document version
:
0.2
Approval
:
Name
Issue Date: 16/02/2016
Signature
Date
Page i
EDITIONS
Version
Description /
Amendments
Creation
Date
0.1
First Draft
25/08/11
0.2
Revisions from
Portsmouth CAFA team
4/10/11
Issue
Date
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Reference
Document Name
Document Description
Southampton
Consortium PID
v1_0.doc
Successful bid submitted
to the DH for funding in
the second round of CAF
for Adults
Project Work Package
Definition: People
Development - CAFA2
Project work package
definition for Portsmouth
pilot.
Issue Date: 16/02/2016
Page ii
CONTENTS
1.
OUTLINE......................................................................................... 4
1.1 BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................4
2.
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 5
2.1 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................5
2.2 CITIZEN / USER ACTION LEARNING SETS ............................................................5
2.3 PROFESSIONAL / STAFF ALS .............................................................................6
3.
RESULTS OF ACTION LEARNING SETS ............................................. 8
3.1 PRRT FOLDER .................................................................................................8
3.2 ADULT SOCIAL CARE INFORMATION ...................................................................8
3.3 PROCESS MAPS .............................................................................................10
4.
NEXT STEPS & DISSEMINATION .................................................... 10
4.1 WORKSHOP / LAUNCH .....................................................................................10
4.2 DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS ................................................................................10
5
APPENDICES ................................................................................. 12
5.1 APPENDIX: INITIAL REPORT ..............................................................................12
5.2 APPENDIX: NOTES FROM THE ACTION LEARNING SETS .......................................12
5.3 APPENDIX: ALS PARTICIPATION INVITATION .....................................................12
5.4 APPENDIX: PRRT ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES ..................................................12
5.5 APPENDIX: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ...................................................12
5.6 COMMENTS / RESPONSES ...............................................................................13
5.6.1
General Comments .............................................................................. 13
Issue Date: 16/02/2016
Page iii
1. OUTLINE
1.1 Background
This report forms a core part of the CAFA2 People Development
opportunity within Portsmouth. It has been written to detail the outcome
of the action learning sets held with users of services and related work
undertaken with professionals.
The main objective of the action learning sets was to find out the most
effective media channel(s) to keep professionals and individuals updated
with information and processes relating to community health and social
care services.
As a precursor to the action learning sets, an initial report was written to
determine the different ways of keeping people up to date with the latest
information. This report is attached in the appendix. The action learning
sets and work with professionals then determined the form and content
of the information to be disseminated to individuals receiving services
from community health and social care teams.
This report consists of the following sections:

Methodology

Results from the learning sets

Next steps/dissemination
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2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Selection of participants
In order to get as broad a range of people as possible attending the
action learning sets, a letter was sent to everyone who had received a
service from either the Independent Living Service (social care) or the
Rapid Response Team (health) in the 6 months between July and
December 2010. Approximately 700 letters were sent.
The letter invited the recipient to get in touch with the Business Change
Manager if they were interested in being involved in the action learning
sets. A copy of the letter is attached in the appendix.
Twelve people expressed an interest in participating in the learning sets;
there was a 50/50 split in whether they had received services from health
or social care, some having had both at some point in recent years.
2.2
Citizen / User Action Learning Sets
Action learning sets were undertaken to better understand the issues
around information that citizens receive from health and social care. The
focus was on whether the individuals thought that information sharing
between health and social care was good or bad. It was also an
opportunity to explore whether the information individuals received was
good enough and whether there was a difference in quality of the
information by provider. It was envisaged that the outcome of the
learning sets would be to put together a media / information pack to help
better inform citizens, and staff, about health and social care. Giving
citizens better information about services can empower them to request
a better or more personalised service if they understand what is available
to them.
Action learning is an accelerated learning tool which can be applied to
any number of different issues and challenges. Participants of action
learning sets meet regularly in order to explore solutions to real problems
and decide on the actions to take. When doing this in the set, the stages
include:
1. Describing the problem(s)
2. Receiving contributions from others in the form of questions
3. Reflecting on the discussions and deciding what action to take
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4. Reporting back on what happened when the action was taken
5. Reflecting on the problem-solving process and how well it is working1
The CAFA action learning sets were facilitated by a member of the
Learning & Development team at Portsmouth City Council. She is a
qualified social worker and approved mental health practitioner, with
responsibility for the training of newly qualified social workers.
The action learning sets were held at the Frank Sorrell Centre, the home
of Portsmouth Disability Forum, the user led organisation who facilitate
the Portsmouth Overview Group (POG) for the project. This building was
chosen as it is easily accessible for wheelchair users, on bus routes and
fairly near all participants’ homes, as they all lived in the south of the City
(travel costs were reimbursed where necessary).
Each date was agreed with the participants of the learning set to ensure
as many of the group as possible were available. The group met four
times with a break of approximately a month between each meeting
Refreshments were provided at every meeting. Lunch was provided at
the first meeting but the participants chose to move the meetings to the
afternoons and decided that only light refreshments (tea, coffee and
biscuits) were necessary.
Two case studies were devised to aid discussion in the action learning
sets. The participants in the group all felt comfortable sharing their own
experiences and so there was more discussion around shared
experiences than the case studies throughout the learning sets.
Occasionally the case studies were used to bring the group’s focus back
to information sharing.
The full notes of the meetings, with names taken out, are attached in the
appendix.
2.3
Professional / Staff ALS
The original plans included holding action learning sets with staff from
the Portsmouth Rehabilitation & Reablement Team (PRRT).
The PRRT was established as part of the Health and Social Care
Partnership (HaSP) programme. HaSP is a joint initiative between Adult
Social Care, Portsmouth City Council and NHS Solent Healthcare and
1
http://www.actionlearningsets.com/php/news.php?id=4
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aims to integrate health social care provision within the Portsmouth area.
The PRRT was the first team to come together as a part of the HaSP
programme and joined the two intermediate care services from health
and social care into a single team.
During the time the action learning sets were taking place, the PRRT
was just being formed. The management team were meeting regularly
to plan for the co-location and then to operationally manage the service.
The team members from both health and social care were adjusting to
the change and taking part in various team building and “getting to know
you” events. It was therefore felt that asking for a group of staff to
additionally participate in action learning sets whilst they were already
very busy adjusting to the new team would be counterproductive.
Therefore, at the end of March 2011, two members of the Department of
Health central Common Assessment Framework for Adults (CAFA) team
spent two days with the PRRT talking to staff at all levels about
integration of the two teams. Their work focussed around three
questions:
 What do you think are the benefits of integration?
 What do you think are the barriers to achieving integration?
 Do you have any ideas or thoughts on solutions for the issues
identified above?
Solutions identified by the PRRT team members, as a result of the above
questions, are being put into practice, led by the management team. As
this is much the same outcome as was expected by the action learning
sets, and focuses on improving information sharing and integration of the
teams, it was felt that there was no need to hold formal action learning
sets.
The citizen action learning set participants were also specifically tasked
to look at the information folder left in a service user’s home while they
receive a service from PRRT. The feedback from both this and the wider
review of available information was taken to the PRRT management
team meeting for discussion and resulted in changes to the format of the
information folder (see section 3.1).
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3. RESULTS OF ACTION LEARNING SETS
3.1 PRRT Folder
PRRT have a ring binder that is left with service users in their homes for
the duration of their service from the team. This was an amalgamation of
forms and information that had previously been left with individuals who
received a service from the independent living service and/or the rapid
response team.
The purpose of the folder is to keep all care plans and information
around the person’s care in one place, easily accessible to staff coming
in to deliver the care, and to service users themselves.
The folder contained a lot of information, including a brief overview on
the role of the team.
As a result of feedback from the learning set participants, the following
changes were made to the PRRT folder:
 The file is now indexed with a contents page
 The information contained within the file has been streamlined
 There is a page on roles and responsibilities of each PRRT
member. This was requested as the individuals found it useful to
understand what each member of the team is able to do. This
sheet is attached in appendix.
The PRRT management team will also use the roles and responsibilities
sheet as a tool in inductions for new staff coming into the team.
3.2
Adult Social Care Information
The action learning set participants also considered other information
that is available to service users, which varies depending on their setting.
The learning sets coincided with the Portsmouth City Council Adult
Social Care service reviewing their publications. Previously, a printed
booklet, “guide to adult social care”, existed for members of the public.
The review has resulted in the development of an information pack which
consists of a folder and loose leaf contents. This format was chosen as
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it makes the pages easy to update and therefore gives the information
pack longevity that is not available with a printed booklet. The
information contained within the folder can also be tailored to the
individual.
The core information included within the pack is an A-Z of services,
“contact us” sheet and a page describing what adult social care is.
The group found this useful but also commented that they had found out
a variety of other information from their various networks (both formal
and informal) and coming together in the learning sets. It was agreed
that it would be useful for this information to be available in one place.
Much of the information, e.g. changes to benefits as a result of an
admission, is available online on various websites e.g DirectGov, Social
Care info Portsmouth. Within the adult social care pages on the
Portsmouth City Council website there was already a page of useful
information and links (http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/2920.html)
which included some of the information identified by the participants.
The group also discussed that although some of them were computer
literate, others did not want to access the internet. Although all the
information on the website is available through the helpdesk there was
not an obvious way to signpost to this without a lot of text on the
helpdesk leaflet. It was decided to create a collection of “frequently
asked questions” to add to the core information within the folder. This is
attached as an appendix.
All the information identified within the action learning sets was then
added to the useful information and links page, as well as the frequently
asked questions document. The document itself has also been added to
the adult social care website home page
http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/13866.html and to the useful
information page.
Initially, it was envisaged that a media pack would be developed as part
of the People Development opportunity, to help signpost individual users
and carers to relevant information/services. However, in light of the fact
that ASC developing their new information pack at the same time, it was
felt it would be a better of use of resources and less confusing to citizens
to provide feedback derived from the ALS to shape this (and the PRRT
folder), rather than develop a separate pack.
Issue Date: 16/02/2016
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3.3
Process Maps
As a part of the CAFA work, a business analyst will be creating process
maps for PRRT and other community health and social care teams.
The group agreed that process maps would be a useful addition to better
understand the journey they will undertake when they are receiving a
service. The PRRT process map(s) will be added to the PRRT folders
and adult social care website pages once they have been created.
Process maps for the other health and social care community teams will
be added to the website pages as and when they become available and
may be included in the adult social care folder if the user groups believe
this to be useful.
4. NEXT STEPS & DISSEMINATION
4.1
Workshop / launch
A workshop event will be planned in partnership with the participants of
the action learning sets and the Portsmouth Overview Group (POG) to
refine the frequently asked questions document.
The format, time and date will all be agreed with the two groups of
people in order to have the maximum impact. Staff will also be invited to
attend.
It is possible that this event could also be used as a launch or workshop
for the adult social care information folder as a whole. This will be
decided in conjunction with the publications working group.
It is envisaged that the frequently asked questions will be a live
document with people able to email any suggestions or other questions
they think should be added. The moderation of these suggestions will be
undertaken by the universal information development worker, who is also
responsible for monitoring and moderating content on the Social Care
info Portsmouth website.
4.2
Distribution channels
As the PRRT folder is left at the homes of people who are receiving an
intermediate care service from health and/or social care, all changes
made as a result of the feedback from the action learning sets will be
seen by everyone they are relevant to.
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The adult social care information packs will be distributed by helpdesk
staff and social work staff to clients and will contain any information
relevant to that individual e.g. choosing care providers, direct payments,
adaptations as well as the set of core information (as specified in section
3.2). There will also be a wider distribution of the folder containing only
the core content to GP surgeries, libraries, community centres and
voluntary organisations.
Staff can also use the generic information as part of their induction and it
will also encourage them to make better use of the adult social care
pages on the Portsmouth City Council website and the Social Care info
Portsmouth website http://scip.portsmouth.gov.uk, as there is also a
wealth of relevant information stored there.
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5 APPENDICES
5.1
Appendix: initial report
W:\SCA\INFO
SHARING\CAFA2\People Development\People Dev Report\CAFA2 People development supporting report.doc
5.2
Appendix: notes from the action learning sets
W:\SCA\INFO
W:\SCA\INFO
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SHARING\CAFA2\People
SHARING\CAFA2\People
Development\ALS\Anonymous
SHARING\CAFA2\People
Development\ALS\Anonymous
Notes\110415
SHARING\CAFA2\People
Development\ALS\Anonymous
Notes from
Notes\110510
Action Learning
Development\ALS\Anonymous
NotesSet
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from
1 - Action
anon.doc
Learning
Notes Notes\110713
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from2 Action
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Learnin
Note
5.3
Appendix: ALS Participation Invitation
W:\SCA\JCCP\JCCP
Shared\Performance\Perf management\QPMT- Everyday Business\QPMO\CAFA2\101222 ALS invitation AD version.doc
5.4
Appendix: PRRT roles & responsibilities
W:\SCA\JCCP\JCCP
Shared\Performance\Perf management\QPMT- Everyday Business\QPMO\CAFA2\PRRT Team members.doc
5.5
Appendix: Frequently Asked Questions
\\Dfs\root\DIR\SCA\
JCCP\JCCP Shared\Performance\Perf management\QPMT- Everyday Business\QPMO\CAFA2\20110725 FAQ Sheet.pdf
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5.6
Comments / Responses
5.6.1 General Comments
Name
Issue Date: 16/02/2016
Organisation
Comments
Page 13