Posted on October 21st, 2009
Last time I wrote I mentioned I was off to an LAAPlus event on Total Place as a ‘driver for LAA outcomes and efficiencies’.
The event last Wednesday was almost entirely Total Place-focused, which seems to reflect the way the sector is looking beyond the life of LAAs; away from the minutiae of performance management processes towards partnership activity that can yield bigger and better outcomes. And of course, create some efficiencies along the way.
The most engaging part of the day for me was hearing from Phil Swann, the programme lead supporting both the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole and Birmingham national pilots. Phil told us all about Joe; an older person receiving a number of health and social care services in Dorset. Joe was frequently admitted to hospital for care, because the day-to-day services he accessed weren’t keeping him safe and well at home. The cost of providing Joe with inappropriate day services, and his regular admittance to hospital, cost the public purse around £2000 a week without achieving the intended outcomeof keeping Joe well. By mapping Joe’s use of services and redesigning care around his needs, Joe is now keeping well at home for £500 a week; a fraction of the previous cost .
Phil and Joe brought Total Place alive for me and made it really meaningful. Hearing about the various counting activities partnerships are undertaking is interesting in a, ‘wow, that’s a massive amount of money’ way, but it doesn’t tell us what that money equates to in terms of impact – on the wellbeing of a child in care, a small business owner or an out-of-work parent. After hearing buy viagra online various reports from colleagues about how hard it is to do the count; how to do it and where to start, I couldn’t help but wonder…maybe the ‘Joe’ approach is the answer. It wouldn’t tell you the entire spend of, say, adult social care, or services for 0-5 year olds, but by ‘counting’ the cost of care of one older person, child in care, jobseeker, the value would be twofold: you’d have a clear sense of service cost and, more importantly, you’d know if those services were achieving their intended purpose: better outcomes for a real person.
At the LAAPlus event we also had presentations from Worcestershire, another pilot, on the governance work they’re progressing to support Total Place activity, and from London Borough of Harrow; a parallel place project.
Incidentally, I’ve had several authorities contacting me to ask whether they need to formally apply to be recognised as a parallel pilot project for buy cialis online the Total Place-focused work they’re doing. The answer’s, ‘no’, but we’d love to hear what you’re up to so we can pick up on the key themes being considered and to link authorities up and promote the learning. It might be 13 pilots that report formally to Government, but the whole sector has an opportunity to contribute to the conversation, add learning to a body of evidence and help inform future Government policy.
To read more from Zoe, visit the Total Place Community of Practice.
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