Our objective is to give our customers more choice and flexibility over the services they receive and to help them lead more independent lives.

As more customers take control of their spending on care and support through personal budgets, it becomes increasingly important that we also offer our services at good value.

We have therefore put forward a number of proposals to make us much more efficient, with the aim of combining quality with value.  They include staff changes.  Here are some answers to questions about them:

 

Q1: Why are you making these changes?

A: We’ve had to make the changes for a number of reasons. These include:

  • public spending cuts have meant that care and support providers all over the UK have had to see how they can make their services much more cost effective
  • our staff terms and conditions are generally higher than the industry norm. This makes us uncompetitive and no longer value for money when compared to other providers
  • our services have too many managers – other providers have already reduced their management levels
  • the personalisation of adult social care means that people will be purchasing our services using direct payments. If we are not competitive in the market we will lose customers and no longer be financially viable.

These factors mean that we need to provide better value for money, while at the same time retain the focus on quality and frontline services.

 

Q2: Is Your Choice Barnet (YCB) a financially viable organisation?

A: Yes. We’re projected to make a small deficit in years one and two of our contract and a surplus in year three.

At the end of year one (31 March 2013) our deficit was approximately £60,000. This was better than we had anticipated, thanks to efficiency savings we’d made and some extra additional income.  But we will receive approximately £1 million less income this year, so we have to make savings to compensate for this reduction.

 

Q3: How confident are you that your financial model is more robust than when services were provided in-house by Barnet Council?

A: We’re confident that our financial model and our business plan (which is outlined in the answer to question 1 and 2 above) will enable us to become a financially viable organisation for the future.

 

Q4: What if the plans don’t work? Will we revert back?

A: We will not be reverting back, but we will constantly review our position.

At any early sign that things are not going to plan we will proactively change things for the better. We won’t leave it until the last minute.

 

Q5: Are we consulting or not?

A: It wasn’t ever our plan to consult. We didn’t feel we were making changes to the services we deliver, just ones to staff terms and conditions and the staffing and management structures.

We have, however, written to service users, carers and relatives about the changes. Also, we invited relatives to three earlier meetings at different times and locations. We’re following these up with more meetings in May at each of the service locations.

We have also been meeting separately with families, on request. We have told them that we welcome their feedback and their views will be taken into consideration when making the final decisions.

 

Q6: Is a review of salaries still going ahead?

A: Yes, but we don’t know at this stage what this will say or whether we will make any changes as a result.

 

Q7: Will Capita take over the Your Choice services?

A: No

 

Q8: Will the council take YCB back in-house or will we ask them to?

A: No, savings will still be needed and, because we are a separate company, we can grow and become more financially viable.  See Q10.

 

Q9: Will we set up a carers’ group?

A: There are already carer groups for some of our services. We will continue to run these and ensure there are groups for the remaining service. Carers’ opinions are extremely important in the way our services develop and help us continuously improve.

 

Q10:  What did the change from the council to YCB, a limited company, mean and what does it mean for services?

A: The main reason that YCB was created by Barnet Council was to ensure that our customers could continue to purchase our services using their personal budget allowances, especially if they had chosen to hold these budgets as direct payments (cash allocation). People cannot purchase the in-house services of any council by direct payment. To have remained a council department would have had a detrimental affect on some of our customers and taken away the choice and control which underlies the government’s personalisation agenda.

Being a limited company means that we have the flexibility to grow and promote our services to customers and other local authorities. This will increase our ability to remain strong and financially viable.

The impact on services will be negligible. If anything, being part of The Barnet Group gives us additional resources in terms of central service provision. It means greater efficiencies, such as improved IT systems, process improvements, better communications and promotional resources. This will have a positive impact on front line service delivery.

 

Q11: How is income generated for YCB?

A: The majority of our income is from adult social care personal budgets

or direct payments. These are budgets which are allocated according to people’s assessed needs. Direct payments mean that people hold their own personal budgets and can chose how to spend them. We also receive some income from the health authorities and some from fundraising.

 

Q12: How will you maintain the quality of services if staff morale is affected?

A: Changes inevitably affect staff morale and we’re doing everything we can to address this by giving colleagues opportunities to apply for other internal posts.

The new structure will increase the opportunities for career advancement and we hope our staff will take advantage of these opportunities. In addition, for all staff who are affected there will be ongoing one-to-one support meetings, recruitment workshops and change management workshops.

 

Q13: What is the difference between YCB care and support workers and social workers elsewhere?

A: A social worker’s role is to ensure people’s needs are assessed and that they are receiving quality care and support to meet their needs. This is an enabling role and delivered by Barnet Council. YCB, as providers of care and support, provides the services to meet people’s needs. We do not carry out the initial assessments.

 

Q14: How do we know when our relatives will one to one support?

A: People’s needs and the level of support they will require will be assessed by Social Services’ care managers and you should be involved in the assessment process.

 

Barnet Independent Living Service (BILS) and CommunitySpace

Q15: How will CommunitySpace accommodate all of the people moving from the BILS service? Will it not become overcrowded and unsafe for our relatives, especially when the weather makes it difficult for users to access the community?

A: YCB is made up of these services: Community Space, BILS, Supported Living, Valley Way,Flower Lane and Rosa Morison.

We’re not proposing merging CommunitySpace and BILS, but instead co-locating the provision so that they operate from one single base.

The co-location will not have a detrimental effect on current service provision, as most of the service provision for both services takes place in the community and will continue to do so.

The proposed transition to co-location will be planned carefully by the service manager and staff from both services to minimise any impact.

 

Q16: Will there be sufficient management time to oversee the work carried out by staff at the CommunitySpace building, now that the Service Manager will be responsible for Supported Living and BILS?

A: The support co-ordinators will have responsibility for directly line managing support workers; so, although the Service Manager will spend less time at the CommunitySpace Hub, there will always be a manager working with and monitoring the quality of support provided by our front line staff.

We will ensure that there are effective management and communication structures in place. These will include regular monthly supervision meetings for staff and regular monthly team meetings for all staff working from the CommunitySpace hub. All staff have their own email address and will have daily access to a computer.

 

Rosa Morison and Flower Lane

Q17: Will clients be affected by the proposals at Rosa Morison or Flower Lane?

A: There may be some changes to staff. This is because we have offered the option of voluntary redundancy to all of our staff so as to minimise the overall impact on those staff who are at risk of redundancy. We will, however, ensure that staff are carefully selected according to their skills and competencies before they replace those staff who chose to take up this offer. We are part of the way through this process and can already see that this will only have a minor impact on staff at these services.

 

Q18: Will service users have their days reduced with the proposals being put forward?

A: No

 

Q19: Are staff at Rosa Morison or Flower Lane affected by the proposals?

A: No

 

Q20: Will the service close at Rosa Morison?

A: No

 

Supported Living

Q21: If Your Choice saved £180,000 in the last financial year, we fear that all possibilities of efficiency savings might now be exhausted and that further savings be at the detriment to the quality of service provision.

A: The savings were in relation to the first year only and our proposed staffing restructure and changes will enable us to make sufficient savings to become a financially viable organisation for the future.

 

Q22:  Will cutting staff salaries reduce quality of service provision, due to low staff morale and difficulties recruiting staff with the right competencies/skills in the future?

A: No. We know that our salaries and our terms and conditions are still favourable in compared to other similar organisations. Therefore we will still be able to attract good quality candidates for our services.

Changes inevitably affect staff morale and we are doing everything we can to address this by giving people opportunities to apply for other internal posts. We hope our staff will take advantage of the enhanced opportunities for career development in the new structure. In addition, for all staff affected we have offered ongoing one-to-one support meetings, recruitment workshops and change management workshops.

 

Q23: Will reduced expenditure affect your commitment to ‘personalisation’, as client choice will surely be less?

A: No. We provide care and support in accordance with people’s assessed needs. Assessments are carried out by adult social care managers. Reducing our costs means that we can offer the same hours at a better price. This means that we are offering a service that is better value for money for Barnet Council and for those individuals purchasing their care directly from us. Personalisation is fully embedded in the way we work with people and this will not change.

 

Q24: Will Telecare devices just be used to replace people and human interactions?

A: We’re already using telecare devices to increase people’s safety around the building. At no time will they be used to replace care or support workers.

 

Valley Way

Q25: How will we deal with issues, such as incontinence at Valley Way when the service changes to one waking night staff member?

A: We have assessed the risk for all of our service users and on the whole there is usually no requirement for lifting people to go to the toilet at night. There will always be a second person on a sleep-in shift available for emergencies and they will be called upon if the need arises.  If a person has been highlighted as needing one-to-one support at all times of day and night, we will ensure that two waking night staff are on duty during their stay.

 

Q26: With the changes taking place at Valley Way will staff be able to support our relatives when they need to attend hospital appointments? Will they be supported by staff when in hospital.

A: We will continue to provide support for people to attend hospital admissions and support them whilst in hospital

 

Q27: Will the sleep in member of staff at Valley Way be called out to other services?

A: No

 

If you have any further questions please contact us at info@yourchoicebarnet.org.