15/05/2012 by admin.

The research element of the project may be coming to an end, but the work goes on!”

The final reports and research outputs have been completed and will be launched on 21 May. Look out for them on the website. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the project.

You can still add comments/suggestions on our Facebook page.

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06/03/2012 by moyra.

The work with Accord HA and Walsall Age Uk and Age Uk Newcastle is coming to an end. We are not quite at the end yet because there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up but it should all be finished by mid April.

We had a great workshop at Old Vicarage Close in Pelsall with Accord staff a couple of weeks ago. Sadly Davina from Age Uk Walsall had a prior engagement so she could not come. We were also missing a few very important people from Telford so Adrian is chasing them up to see what they think of the exercises and material we had put together for the day. The materials included exercises to help people think through doing a personal profile which describes essential information about someone together with a photo. We also had exercises on the things that are important to a person and the things that are important for a person which underlines how easy it is to forget the important to (which is the personal bit) and concentrate on teh organisational bit - things like health and safety. By trying them out people could think through how they could apply these person centred routines in their everyday work.

We came to the view that although Accord has just finished updating its personal support planning process and does not want to go back and unpick it that there are ways to integrate the personal profiles and the important to and for routines. Adrian is producing a longer note on the workshop so these are just a few highlights. Kim Yates Accord HA Acting Assistant Director also let us know that the work we did to appraise the person centredness of information given to potential consumers about particular extra care schemes, residential homes and sheltered developments was helpful. Where possible our suggested changes will be incorporated into new publicity. We intend to follow some of the people up who were unable to come to the last workshop to find out what they are doing and how and if they are using person centred working.

In Newcastle we are planning a workshop with staff and volunteers to try out some of the same exercises we used with Accord. Due to the fact that Age Uk Newcastle have been going through a big restructure this workshop is much later than we wanted it to be. However, we are very grateful and we expect to just squeeze it in. We will in fact be working flat out to get all the materials ready for the guide. We are also working on papers and other outputs so noses are firmly to the grindstone.

We hope to formally end the demonstration projects with a joint teleconference or skype conversation between people in each of the projects.

In the meantime we are going to post some photographs of the people who have been working with us. First up are the Accord and Walsall Age Uk demonstration project. These photographs were taken at two of the workshops.

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14/02/2012 by moyra.

Yes I know,  how sad am I writing a blog when everyone else in the world is off having heart shaped choccies, boats of champagne and lots of other romantic treats. All the same some of us have to work so here is the latest on the research project. 

Adrian and I have been doing lots more work with Accord HA and Age UK Walsall and, with Age UK Newcastle. It is now becoming clear that although the two demonstration projects are very different there are many points of similarity. Both sets of people are keen to embrace person centred working and thinking and both are working with us to find how best to do it. We are aslo starting to see what the guide will look like when we have finished the research work. The guide will hopefully help older people’s organisations and housing organisations to work out what they need to do in order to be fit for the future. Person centred thinking and working being a fundamental part of being future ready.  

Basically we think the guide will contain some practice and discussion papers and a range of different material on how to apply person centred thinking and working including what works for Accord staff working in residential care and extra care setttings and what works for Age UK Walsall. For both organisations we are concentrating on making services for peopel with dementia more person focused. We have also been assessing some of the literature and marketing information Accord produces to see if improvements can be made and have just reported back to them on this.

With Newcastle Age Uk we have suggested scripts and routines that their new customer services team can use and we will be trying them out with the staff and volunteers. We have developed some specific suggestions on improving the way advice and information is provided so that it enables customers to be in control of the situation and their futures. We are also working on assessign the training scenarios and materials used by Age Uk Newcastle by advisers. The outputs should be ready in the next few weeks. Finally, we have been advising Age Uk Newcastle how to improve their quality assurance including advice on surveying customers and obtaining more rounded and sophisticated customer  feedback. We will be working with Age Uk outside of the Orbit Charitable Trust funded work, to develop a customer panel for them. 

 We have produced a longish progress note on the demosntration projects and the other work we are doing so look out for that. It should be appearing very soon. 

From our point of view the action research continues to be exciting and challenging! 

The Expert Panel are currently being updated on progress by Adrian, Steve and I and they are hoping to meet together in March or April. 

 Adrian and I are holding a third workshop with Accord HA and Age UK Walsall later this month and we are hoping to hold a workshop with staff and volunteers in Age UK Newcastle this month or early next month. We will let you know what happens next.

Moyra

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21/01/2012 by adrian.

We have now had our second meeting with Accord staff, this time at a brand-new extra care scheme: Bourneville House in Telford (a town famous for its collection of roundabouts but, apparently, very little else). Despite last minute changes of venue and the sort of equipment malfunctions you dread, it all went very well.

It’s interesting to see how engaged the staff attending are. Being a tad cynical I thought some of those involved might be of the “I’m here because my Boss told me to be here” variety but the willingness of everyone to identify and address issues has been outstanding. When staff say things like ““we don’t believe in taking your life over - we believe in helping you to live the life you want to” (and actually mean it!) That has to be a positive thing for service users.

Accord staff, and their partners at Age UK Walsall, will be looking at more aspects of the Dimensions approach, and how/if it can be applied to their client group and the way they work, over the coming weeks prior to our next meeting at Old Vicarage Close in mid-February – hopefully I’ll be staying in the guest room which is no great shame as there’s a nice pub right close to the scheme.

Adrian 12th January 2012

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27/12/2011 by adrian.

The second phase of the project is now well under way. Last Thursday (Thursday 15th December) Moyra and myself met up with staff from Accord Housing Association (who have agreed to be the second of our Stage 2 pilots) at one of their Extra Care schemes near Walsall. The staff came from the Care and Support side of the organisation but from a wide range of roles (quite literally from cook to Director). We were also pleased to have a representative from the local Age UK present and we look forward to working with her on the project.

It is going to be quite a challenge to see how best practice in person-centred working developed for one client group can be transferred to another, but it was clear that Accord is up for the challenge. Indeed, their positive approach to personalisation shone through. It’s going to be enjoyable working with them over the coming months. We’ll keep you informed as the work progresses – we already have a second workshop arranged for mid-January in Telford.

Adrian Jones 22nd December 2011

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22/12/2011 by moyra.

Adrian, Steve and I have been having a busy time. Over the last couple of  weeks we have been starting off the demonstration project in Walsall with Accord Housing Group and Age Uk Walsall and we have been continuing to work with Age UK Newcastle.  The demonstration project in Walsall kicked off with a lively workshop on person centred thinking and working. At the workshop were members of Accord staff from a residential care home, some older people who live in Old Vicarage Close in Walsall - an Accord HA extra care scheme, a senior member of staff from Age Uk Walsall, Accord staff from the Old Vicarage Close extra care scheme and senior officers from Accord Group. Everyone took part and there was a high level of interest in personalisation.

Accord Group has a personalisation strategy and a commitment to working in person centred ways and so do Age UK Walsall so the presentation on person centred working fell on fruitful ground.  However, when the discussion at the workshop turned to the work we are doing in Newcastle with Age UK staff and volunteers everyone became very thoughtful. It was clear that some of the learning from the Newcastle demonstration project would transfer easily but other parts are not appropriate. Transferring easily are some of the techniques to work together in teams in person centred ways involving different ways of talking and behaving.  For example, the members of staff from the Accord residential home included the cook, a care manager, a care assistant and a member of the domestic staff. All have insights into the individuals they provide services for yet they rarely meet together for the purposes of working with individuals to devise their personal plans and this was something they could do.

Adrian and I are in the process of writing up all the notes from the workshop in Walsall. In the meantime though you could look at the summary Adrian has produced and the presentation we put together for the workshop.

Incidentally Accord has a unusual and possibly unique collaborative working arrangement with Age Uk Walsall  which seems to go beyond partnership working. They recently bid for and successfully won a joint tender. We are talking to both parties about the processses of collaborative working so we can understand what it means and how it pans out in practice. We will produce a practice paper on the subject. 

In Newcastle we have started to produce the tools and approaches that the customer service staff will try out and work is also underway to establish a new customer panel which will give Age UK Newcastle some fairly sophisticated ways to assess their performance from a customer point of view and to see if the person centred ways of working being proposed are actually better for customers. Exciting? Most certainly.

Happy Christmas every one and best wishes for 2012!     

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14/12/2011 by admin.

We have reviewed literature relevant to the relationship between housing organisations and older people’s groups, concentrating on the most recent publications.  We have now published the 2nd Edition. Click on the links in the footnotes to read the literature yourself.

Literature Review - 2nd Edition

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01/12/2011 by moyra.

I don’t know about you but I can’t believe it is December already. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will not be any of the white stuff soon especially as Adrian and I are travelling to Walsall in the next couple of weeks to run the first workshop for the demonstration project. A repeat of last year’s snow fall combined with rail travel is not welcome!

We are starting to write the presentation material for the workshop and the exercises. It will be different to the presentation material we prepared for the demontration project in Newcastle with Age UK Newcastle because the workshop in the midlands will involve a variety of staff and older people only some of whom have ever heard of person centred working and thinking. This means that we have to work out a different place to start talking about the subject and we need to think about the things that are likely to interest a different kind of audience. We are looking forward to teh workshop though and we hope it goes well. Look out for the presentation material which will appear on the research pages before the 15th December.

This week I have been working on the ‘tools’ that the customer service team wiill use in Age Uk Newcastle or rather the tools they will trial together with volunteers. I am going to write a separate paper on the subject and it should appear on the research pages soon.

Adrian, Steve and I are starting to update other text on the research pages - you will see a few changes over the next couple of weeks.

Best wishes

Moyra

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24/11/2011 by moyra.

The Expert Panel and the research team had a teleconference meeting last week which went very well although quite a few people were missing on exotic holidays much to the chagrin of the rest of us. To be fair though it wasn’t all pure pleasure for those unable to participate. Peter Fletcher was stuck on a train with no signal and Sylvia Cox had to attend an urgent meeting elsewhere. The teleconference was useful because it gave us a chance to bring everyone up to date with the work we have been doing so far as part of Phase Two.

The most exciting news is that Accord Housing Association has agreed to work with us as a second demonstration project. Accord HA is based in the midlands and is a very innovative organisation which amongst other things provides a range of accommodation options and services for older people. We are delighted they will work with us and we have a workshop scheduled with them for 15 December. I will let you know how it goes.

In the meantime our demonstration project in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Age UK Newcastle is continuing. We are meeting tomorrow to start work to adapt person centred tools and ways of working for their customer service team. The team services all new enquiries and is composed of paid and volunteer staff. It is therefore the entry point for potential service users and anyone else and its a great place to start working with the organisation to develop and roll out person centred ways of working. it was also the area of work within the organisation that Age Uk Newcastle’s Senior Managment Team selected. In contrast to some of their other areas of work such as health and well being where it is relatively easy to transfer some of the tools and techniques Dimensions has developed on person centred working, it is harder to do this in customer services. It is particularly hard to see how person centred working will fit one off enquiries and how it will work with customers who want a specific query or piece of information rather than a multiplicity of services that naturally lend themselves to something that is more in depth. However, we will see! 

Now that we are beginning to get to grips with things it is becoming clearer that the  demonstration projects are essentially knowledge transfer projects and the work is  pretty challenging. Action research can be very testing in any case and this project is certainly breaking new ground. One of the most challenging things is to find ways to transfer the nine years worth of learning and practice in person centred working from the Dimensions organisation to two very different organisations with different outlooks, cultures, products, service users and strategic directions. However, it is also exciting and we are enjoying the work very much.

We are very grateful for the expert comments and advice from our Expert Panel on the subject of knowledge transfer and for keeping us on track as far as the tenets of action research are  concerned. I will keep you up to date as more emerges.

Moyra   

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07/11/2011 by moyra.

Last week was such a busy week. On Monday we held the workshop with Dimensions and Age UK Newcastle to kick off the first demonstration project as part of Phase Two of the research. It went really well. The Age UK Newcastle senior management team prepared for the workshop by completing a Progress for Providers questionnaire which gave me and them an indication of where the organisation is up to in terms of personalisation and we learned quite a bit from it. Dimensions staff members took us all through the tools they use which include ‘My perfect day’ ‘ 4 plus 1 assessments’ ‘ What’s working and what’s not working’ and reviewing tools. Age Uk Newcastle staff said that the workshop was a really good way to learn about practically and comprehensively implementing personalisation. It  gave them lots of food for thought on how they might adapt and apply some of the tools to Age Uk Newcastle. All in all I was pleased with how the workshop went and breathed a huge sigh of relief that the format for the morning worked.

I will be writing the workshop up in the  next few days and I will post the notes on the research pages when they are ready.

The rest of the week was spent thinking through how to apply the lessons from the workshop elsewhere, working on the good practice papers the research team and I are in the process of outlining and working on another project. Steve and I met on Thursday in London (Adrian was unfortunately ill and couldn’t be with us). Steve and I had a good brainstorming session and some very nice tea.  We also prepared a short progress report for the Orbit Charitable Trust Trustees and started working out an agenda for the teleconference meeting that the Expert Panel will be having later this month.

This week I hope to catch up with colleagues at Age UK Newcastle to get their reflections on the workshop and to discuss next steps with them. I am also analysing their responses to the Progress for Providers questionnaire together with their feedback on the usefulness of the questionnaire as a fit for purpose tool.  Steve is meanwhile continuing to work on the literature review and Adrian is chasing potential demonstration project contacts in the Midlands.

Despite the grim weather forecast it was a gorgeous day here in Northumberland so the weatherpeople obviously boobed. I hope it is just as lovely for you and me tomorrow.

Moyra

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