Ambition, confidence and risk:holding our nerve in difficult timesAndrew CozensStrategic Adviser, Children Adults & Health Services

SSRG Annual Workshop20 April 2009

Ambition

• Scope and timeframe of what we are working towards

• Currency and relevance• Building the evidence base• New ways of judging success

Children’s Plan: Building brighter futuresFive principles of the Plan:• Government does not bring up children – parents do – so

government needs to do more to back parents and families.

• All children have the potential to succeed and should go as far as their talents can take them.

• Children and young people need to enjoy their childhood as well as grow up prepared for adult life.

• Services need to be shaped by and responsive to children, young people and families, not designed around professional boundaries.

• It is always better to prevent failure than tackle a crisis later.

A personalised adult social care system• Agreed and shared outcomes which should ensure people,

irrespective of illness or disability, are supported to:

• live independently.• stay healthy and recover quickly from illness.• exercise maximum control over their own lives and

where appropriate the lives of their family members.• sustain a family unit which avoids children being

required to take on inappropriate caring roles.• participate as active and equal citizens, both

economically and socially.• have the best quality of life, irrespective of illness or

disability• retain maximum dignity and respect.

Ambition

• Scope and timeframe of what we are working towards

• Currency and relevance• Building the evidence base• New ways of judging success

The opportunities of place shaping• Focus on understanding and delivering the improvements places need

and the outcomes local people want, rather than relying on traditional service delivery channels.

• Achieve economies of scale and scope, where this is sensible, rather than being restricted by local authority spatial boundaries and direct responsibilities.

• Act locally where this makes sense – sometimes on a neighbourhood basis – to achieve greater responsiveness.

• Provide greater opportunities for joint commissioning and procurement with other statutory bodies – so contributing to efficiency savings.

• Provide a separation of roles between commissioning and providing services, thus enabling the local authority and the LSP to be the champion of the citizen and service improvement.

CLG: Strong and Prosperous Communities (2006)

Reorienting to social movements• Strong focus for commissioners on

understanding what supports social movements:• Pride in, and a sense of, the place• Community cohesion• Participation• Tackling of inequalities• Releasing the potential of the public’s health• Well-being

Ambition

• Scope and timeframe of what we are working towards

• Currency and relevance• Building the evidence base• New ways of judging success

Different progress measures

• Data• Population indicators Actual turned curves; movement for the

better away from the baseline.• Programme performance measures Customer progress and

better service• How much did we do?• How well did we do it?• Is anyone better off?

• Accomplishments Positive activities, not included above.

• Anecdotes Stories behind the statistics that show individuals are better off.

Ambition

• Scale of what we are working towards

• Relevance• Building the evidence base• New ways of judging success

Council performance rating

• Shift from service management and organisational assessment

• Collective judgement on public services

• Greater emphasis on quality of life and customer satisfaction

Council performance rating

• Shift from better services to better outcomes:• For the whole population.• For those using specific services.• For individuals.

Council performance rating

• New questions asked:• What conditions are we trying to

improve for everyone; what does success look like?

• For services: how much; to whom; did we make a difference?

• For individuals: choice and control.

Judging success

• The Comprehensive Area Assessment’s (CAA) key aims are:• Supporting improvement in local services and

outcomes.• Protecting vulnerable people.

Improving value for money and effective joint working.

• Supporting local accountability.• Assessment will judge the risk to achieving priority

outcomes, focusing on but not limited to LAA targets.• Important that assessing performance and risk does not

create risk aversion and stifle innovation.

Confidence

• Political• Public• Media• Users and carers• Professional• Regulators

Risk

• Risk• Reputation• Recession• Efficiency• Election• Elbow room

Leadership challenges

• National picture; local focus• Developing an integrated local vision that

has deep roots, with users, staff and politicians

• Balancing influence and accountability• Knowing your story and the evidence that

supports it – warts and all• Living with complexity

Challenge for councils

• Coordinating agencies to promote social inclusion

• Supporting and strengthening communities

• Meeting the needs of the whole population

Ambition, confidence and risk:holding our nerve in difficult timesAndrew CozensStrategic Adviser, Children Adults & Health Services

SSRG Annual Workshop20 April 2009