BRIDGEND County Borough Council’s Social Services and Wellbeing Directorate has published a three-year strategic plan for its adult social care provision, highlighting a range of sustainable support and care which will be put in place for adults across the county borough.
With a forecast over the next three years showing significant challenges for all local authorities and their partners across Wales, resources are likely to be scarcer than previously experienced. To counter these challenges, the council’s social services directorate has been quick to act on delivering fundamental changes to the design and delivery of its services and to the way it works with people receiving support.
The plan, entitled ‘Building on strengths, improving lives’ – sets out the strategic objectives, priorities, and plans of the service to deliver sustainable and effective social care and wellbeing support for adults, with a clear direction of travel and demonstrating an ongoing commitment to targeting limited resources to those who most need them.
The plan also encourages ‘active citizenship’ – supporting individuals to live as independently as possible, to be resilient, and connected to friends, family, and their community as much as possible.
This work, however, will not be undertaken in isolation, but in conjunction with other teams across the council, in the third sector, within local communities, and with health services, to enable successful delivery for local people.
The key priorities over the next three years will include the need to deliver improvements resulting from a new adult social care operating model, which aims to increase the number and proportion of people who can live well at home or in the community.
The plan outlines a commitment to an outcomes-focused strengths-based practice which will help promote resilience and independence for the people supported by the service.
With the focus on driving through further improvements in the front door response, hospital discharge, reablement and long-term support in the community to ensure services are most effective in promoting resilience and reducing unnecessary demand. The plan also proposes to secure greater cost-effectiveness through the transformation of service delivery for learning disability, mental health and long-term conditions.
Finally, as part of the council’s corporate climate change programme and working as part of the Welsh Government Health and Care Climate Change Programme Board, the adult social care plan supports the positive move towards reducing the carbon footprint of social care.
This will be put into action by ensuring support for staff, community engagement, technology and partnerships are all geared towards cost-effective and sustainable social care in the longer term, including initiatives such as use of electric vehicles in community services and locality working.
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Services, Health and Wellbeing, Councillor Jane Gebbie said: “This report highlights the fundamental objectives and key priorities of the Adult Social Care plan for the period between 2024 and 2027.
“Although this period will have its challenges, the plan not only recognises the positive changes and improvements that have already begun, but outlines clear, effective strategies and future plans for further instrumental work in succeeding in a difficult financial climate.
“Moving forward and to deal with these challenges we will commit to deliver fundamental changes to the design and delivery of our services and to the way we work with people.
“We must acknowledge the dedication of our Adult Social Care workforce who are vital to the success in carrying out the plan, and I’m confident we can achieve more positive changes and good results during the next three years.”