Adult Services Case Study - Sirona / Bath & North East Somerset County Council
By Gemma Raw
The challenge
Sirona, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s social care delivery partner, were looking for reliable expertise and resources to support them in clearing a backlog of adult care assessments and reviews. The brief was to work with service users and their carers in their homes, to review their care and support and to produce high quality assessments.
With strong credentials as a UK market leader in social care partnerships, we were able to offer Sirona a reliable, cost-effective solution. The project timescale was challenging, but our ability to deploy promptly was as important as our quality assured service and our experience of quickly building strong, productive working relationships.
Our approach
Our versatile, scalable business model enabled us to mobilise and move into the planning stage of the project quickly and smoothly. We built a team of four social workers, supervised by a Project Manager and supported by business support staff based at our headquarters. The project was overseen by our Head of Adult Services and Managing Director.
We have a strong commitment to transparency and accountability. Having agreed key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks with Sirona, we scheduled daily and weekly reports designed by our Data Performance team, as well as regular risk and issues conference calls. This ensured that progress was carefully monitored and any issues identified were dealt with quickly.
Our social workers took a person-centred approach in all assessments, which underwent two levels of quality assurance to ensure Care Act 2014 compliance and exceptional standards.
Results
The visits, outcome-focused assessments, support plans and full quality assurance were completed within the agreed project timescale of 10 weeks. Our team completed 148 assessments.
All KPIs were achieved and assessment throughput averaged at six assessments per week per social worker. We always look for opportunities that can deliver business and cost efficiencies for our clients where it is safe and appropriate for the service user. In some cases our team were able to source free or low-cost alternatives to services currently delivered directly by the local authority. For example, customers were referred to community resources, assistive technology, occupational therapy services, and national support groups.
Feedback
"Sanctuary Personnel's methods of working have been incredibly useful in challenging our accepted practice and enabled us to think about developing ways to improve efficiency, service user outcomes and practitioner’s professional satisfaction.
"They reduced our waiting list and cost of care packages. We are very pleased with the way that they took our requirements on board and delivered them in an efficient, supportive and friendly manner.”
- Simon Allen, Operational Lead for Adult Statutory Services, Sirona Care & Health CIC
