location Black Country Partnership for Care
learningtogether toprogressInLAWS
backgroundadult services in the black country
This project was undertaken with the four metropolitan district councils in the Black Country:
Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. These four local authorities have a history of
working together on a range of issues in adult social care at directors of adult social care (DASS)
and workforce lead level, through the Black Country Partnership for Care (BCPC) which was
established in 2002. The partnership brings together the expertise of Skills for Care, health and
social care employers, including voluntary and community organisations, training providers,
Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the Black Country local authority action group to address the
development of the social care workforce across the whole sector in the Black Country.
There are different models of service delivery in each of the four local authorities. Each has a
common boundary with its Primary Care Trust area. A number of the private voluntary and
independent (PVI) care provider businesses contract with more than one of the local authorities.
Annual performance assessments (2009) – Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton are all
performing well. Work with the Black Country Partnership for Care took place between August
2009 and February 2010.
This project was key to developing closer
relationships with colleagues in service
commissioning and finance which will help to
progress InLAWS further. It was also helpful
to see how some of the other authorities
across the Black Country were
approaching Putting People Firstand workforce issuesAndrea Pope-Smith, Director of Adult Servicesand Health, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
drivers for changeDudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton
local authorities were all in the process of
transforming adult social care across their local
areas and considering how to tackle the
associated workforce issues. Workforce leads,
with support from their DASS, were committed
to using the strong relationships built through
BCPC to progress adoption of the InLAWS
approach in their own local authorities and
facilitate the sharing of adult social care
workforce data across the Black Country
partnership. It was felt that learning and working
together in this way would help each party meet
the requirements of Putting People First more
effectively and ultimately improve service
delivery in adult social care across the
sub-region.
what were the key issues for the fourcouncils in the black country at thebeginning of the project work?
Each borough sought to review its own
governance arrangements for taking forward
InLAWS as service commissioning, workforce
and financial strategies were not sufficiently
‘joined up’. All four also needed to refresh their
workforce strategies so that they would better
reflect their own local area workforce rather
than their in-house workforce.
what work was undertaken?
Following a series of planning meetings with a
lead DASS, workforce leads and Skills for Care
staff, a project plan was agreed. The four DASS
were kept informed of developments
throughout the project via meetings and short
emailed reports, to ensure that issues identified
were drawn to their attention as the project
progressed. This work was led by the
consultant with very good support from Skills
for Care staff in the region who also attended
each of the meetings and events.
activities October 2009 – At the first learning group
workforce leads discussed the self evaluation
they had prepared based on the six themes set
out in the Department of Health’s Working toPut People First to help identify common
workforce issues, gaps and key barriers to
progressing InLAWS in their local area.
Common issues and barriers were fed back to
the four DASS. This really helped secure good
attendance of council staff at the half day event
in November 2009.
Barriers identified were:
1. The need to promote mutualunderstanding and closer workingbetween colleagues in workforce,service commissioning and financefunctions and developing a widerunderstanding of the benefits ofusing NMDS-SC.
2. Developing a commissioningstrategy which enables theworkforce to be commissionedalong with services.
3. The importance of raising levels ofengagement in the PVI sector.
4. The importance of having a clearmodel of service delivery in eachcouncil to facilitate progress withdefining the future workforce.
November 2009 – A consultant facilitated a
half day event with input from workforce leads
and Skills for Care staff. This brought together
workforce leads, finance, commissioning and
personalisation leads in the four councils to
explore how to work together more closely to
progress InLAWS in their own council. It
provided an excellent opportunity for whole
group discussion on the principles of InLAWS,
the benefits of integrated working and the
value of NMDS-SC. Each council took away
three action points to progress InLAWS in their
own organisation.
December 2009 – The second learning group
was used to review progress and learning to
date in each council and to discuss how BCPC
may be able to support future development
activities. The BCPC manager and vice chair
also joined this meeting to enhance their
understanding of InLAWS and associated
workforce issues. The group worked together
to agree core messages learnt to date that
could be shared at the West Midlands show
case event in January 2010. These messages
were about InLAWS governance, engaging
with the private voluntary and independent
(PVI) sector and cultural change.
January 2010 – At the InLAWS show case
event workforce leads gave a very good joint
presentation to share the core messages,
bringing in examples from their own councils.
Two councils presented at the morning
workshop and two did so in the afternoon.
February 2010 – One to one meetings were
held with workforce leads and other relevant
staff in each council to agree next steps to
refresh workforce strategies and progress
InLAWS with their colleagues.
outcomesAs a result of this process workforce leads have built closer relationships with their colleagues in
service commissioning and finance which will facilitate future conversations to help join up
internal processes and progress InLAWS.
Workforce leads also have a greater understanding of:
Current gaps in the their local area workforce and what needs to be done to refresh their
workforce strategy to help meet the challenges of Putting People First.The key barriers to progressing InLAWS in their own council and how governance
arrangements need to change to bring this about.
Common workforce issues across the Black Country and how these may be jointly addressed
in future.
The importance of the JSNA to service and workforce commissioning.
lessons learnt
This project achieved its objectives because the DASS and workforce leads had an
understanding and were signed up to the InLAWS concept. BCPC is an established
partnership and both the DASS and the workforce leads are used to working together.
Resources are in place to maintain this partnership. Skills for Care in the West Midlands
were proactive in supporting the project and disseminating outcomes.
suggestions to help make projects of this nature a success
As with any work of this nature, the principles of good project management apply, so agree a
project plan that all parties sign up to and set out how this will be managed.
Ensure there is strong buy-in from the DASS and workforce leads before committing to a
project of this nature.
If the partnership is not well established be prepared to spend considerable time and effort in
setting up and maintaining your partnership and ensuring each member organisation feels they
will gain sufficient value for the time they invest.
If DASS are not directly involved consider how you will communicate with all of the DASS as a
group throughout the project. You may wish to link with a lead DASS in the group who will help
with dissemination of project progress but this only works if they meet regularly. Otherwise you
will need to set up specific meetings with the DASS as a group or try to ‘piggy back’ on to the
end of existing meetings and use emailed reports to give feedback to them.
Take time to establish a common purpose and build relationships even if the local authorities
you are planning to work with are not exactly at the same stage on workforce issues. There
can be real benefits in sharing learning and mutual support.
Running a half day event for the different people involved in InLAWS with other local authorities
can be a really good way to debate and spark new ideas and generally find out what others
are doing. You will need a shared agenda and outcomes agreed in advance with clear roles for
each local authority involved.
future actionsEach workforce leads have clear action points on what needs to be done to refresh their workforce
strategies. Progressing InLAWS will be firmly on the agenda.
Each of the four local authorities is developing an InLAWS position statement to help them gain an
overview of key activities on; leadership, commissioning strategy, data collection and analysis,
partnership with providers, joint and integrated working, direction of travel with information and advice
services and workforce regulation and safeguarding and to determine where future action is needed.
insights in to the InLAWS process from the black country project
core messages on InLAWS governance
Building good relationships are absolutely key to success, don’t neglect this.
Strong leadership at all levels, a clear remit, accountability as well as wide ownership are critical.
Who is at the table? – make sure you have the right people at the right level with the right
knowledge who can make things happen.
Progressing InLAWS takes time, the process itself creates the means for intelligent
re-design to meet Putting People First and improve efficiency so be bold (this is in contrast to
‘how can we adopt an approach that causes the minimum change to existing arrangements?’)
Many things you need to progress InLAWS may already be there – make sure these are used.
core messages on engaging with the private voluntary and independent (PVI) sector
We need to ensure an ongoing relationship and a strong partnership approach between local
authority and service providers to ensure the best possible outcomes for all parties (i.e. don’t
wait until the end of the transformation to engage – invite providers in discussions to help with
shaping of the future to get their buy-in).
Develop the community role of the DASS and get independent providers to exercise an interest.
PVI organisations have to be made to understand the implications of Putting People First and
adapt their business models to meet changing service needs. Local authorities must get the
message across to providers that they need to prepare to do more with less but there are also
opportunities for those who wish to take them.
Local authorities need to look carefully at the procurement/commissioner/service provider relationship
– as workforce and services are part of a package and block contracts will not be an option in future.
core message on cultural change in PVI organisations
It is really important to develop greater dignity at the front line. This means developing leadership
capacity and empowering people. Current training on offer by providers and the four local
authorities need re-examining to check it matches these changing requirements.
© Skills for Care 2010