About social care in Walsall
Walsall SCSH arranges high quality, economic, efficient and effective services. In delivering these services we promote inclusion and independence, respect the dignity and diversity of users and assure protection where appropriate.
We provide services for:
- Vulnerable children and families
- The elderly and frail
- People with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, learning difficulties, or mental health problems
- The homeless or potentially homeless
- Asylum seekers and refugees
- Travellers and gypsies
- Other vulnerable people
We aim to:
- ensure safety and protection
- maximise life chances and quality of life
- become a better employer
- improve business and practice processes
- improve partnership working
More information is available at our social care webpages.
Social Care and Inclusion service areas
At Walsall our primary concern is always the people and communities we serve. With this in mind, our approach to improvement is guided by:
- ensuring those who use our services, their families and carers have influence. We want to do things with people, not to them.
- Improving and promoting partnerships with other agencies to deliver support more effectively
- Being sure to train and empower our people
- Planning effectively at a strategic and service delivery level
- ·Meeting national priorities and local plans
Services for adults
Adult Services has witnessed recent major change and improvement. We have secured extra resources, helping provide greater choice to people in need of care and support. Working in partnership with the Primary Care Trust with having already developed integrated Learning Disability services (managed by the Local Authority) and integrated Mental Health services (managed by the Primary Care Trust) we are developing an integrated Younger Adults and Disability services and are working towards the development of an integrated Older People’s service.
Adult Sservices are divided into 5 divisions:
Supported Housing
– Including provision of services to the homeless, asylum seekers and also includes the innovative Neighbourhood Community Services which offers a low level preventative service to older people and other vulnerable adults.
Older People’s Service
–Includes a major programme of service remodelling to provide more community based, person-centred services, including assistive technology, dementia care mapping, reablement and intermediate care services. and of assessment and care co-ordination services into 4 localities with integrated assessments and long-term support teams.
Disability Services
– We have developed an innovative new integrated service with significant investment into this service user group. The service will include all specialist physical and sensory impairment services for all age groups, as well as focussing on younger adults who are vulnerable.
Integrated learning disability services
– The first fully developed integrated service with a pooled budget and single management of social care and health staff. Significant investment in community based services and a major reprovision programme from traditional large units to supported living.
Integrated Mental Health Services
– Managed by the Teaching Primary Care Trust with the planned development of single management arrangements and pooled budgets. The service also includes mental health services for older people.
Following our success in developing a fully integrated Adult Learning Disability Service, Walsall MBC and Walsall Teaching Pri mary Care Trust are developing a fully integrated Younger Adults and Disability Service and have agreed to work towards an integrated service for Older People. We have Joint Heads of Service and Joint Commissioning Managers for these services.
Operational teams provide specialist services for younger adults and older people respectively, supported by an enhanced management capacity, improved administrative support and work environments, a targeted training programme and a total review of assessment and care co-ordination practices and procedures.
Key achievements and objectives include:
- Securing significant additional resources for front line services
- A prevention strategy to assist people retain their independence and maintain their health and social functioning
- Establishing Partnership Boards to drive forward the modernisation of services
- Increased quality and quantity of support to carers
Key future targets include:
- A service redesign process to create a wider choice of services for older people and more opportunities for care in people’s own homes
- Development of an Independent Living Centre
- Improved prevention, health promotion, rehabilitation and reablement services
We are creating excellent opportunities for talented, creative people to achieve real changes for service users and to develop their careers in Adult Services.
Children’s Services
In Walsall, children are a priority. And in Children’s Services we work hard to promote the health, welfare and life chance benefits of children and young people. And we focus on delivering and developing services that promote the upbringing of children in their homes and families.
We are committed to listening to children and young people. Learning about our services from their perspective helps us focus on strategic goals, whilst not losing sight of who and what is important.
Our priorities include protecting vulnerable children from harm, ensuring children are securely attached to substitute carers, and maintaining the health and social care needs of care leavers.
We aim to develop a skilled, trained, stable workforce. And we work hard to promote both effective use of resources amongst our staff, and information about our services to the children we care for.
Services are delivered through a child focused model (Children First) which comprises:
- single point of access in the Town Centre
- Assessment, Inclusion and Family Support
- Looked after Children’s Services
- Child Protection and Review Services
- Children’s Placement Services
Disability Services
In Walsall we are committed to ensuring people with disabilities have the right to lead valued, independent and inclusive lives. And we’re leading the way in changing our services.
We operate an active Partnership Board to oversee changes being made to health and social services, employment, education, leisure and other community services in support of this commitment. These changes support our core philosophy and involve a range of agencies, family carers and - most importantly - people with disabilities.
Recent positive changes we’ve implemented include:
- Pooling financial resources from Walsall MBC and the local PCT
- Enabling people to move from long term local authority residential care and NHS accommodation to their own supported tenancies
- Attracting new support providers able to provide flexible, community based accommodation and day activities
- Setting up direct payments to give users control over their support services
- Training over sixty people in facilitating Person Centred Planning
- Establishing a multi-disciplinary team to support young people as they leave school
Our Integrated Learning Disability Team brings together Community Nurses, Social Workers, Challenging Behaviour Team, Occupational Therapists and others into one service with a single access point. This team is at the hub of our plans for continued service improvement.
Now we’re developing locality bases to help us work more closely with local communities. We have won extra resources for this service and are planning further expansion over the next three years. It’s an exciting time for us and we hope to welcome you to our team.
Support Services
A service on the scale of Walsall’s SCSH Directorate demands a range of support to help manage, oversee and deliver aspects of service which require detailed planning, resourcing and infrastructure. Our support services network includes:
- Administrative Support
- Customer Services
- Finance
- Information Technology
- Internal / External Communications
- PA / Secretarial Services
- Property Management
- Public Information
- Quality & Performance Management
- Strategic Support to Senior Management Board
- Strategic Support, Procurement and Partnerships Division
- Training and Staff Development
- Transport Services
Contact us
Strategic Recruitment Team
3rd Floor, Civic Centre
Darwall Street
Walsall
WS1 1TP
Telephone 01922 655673
Textphone 0845 111 2910
Email recruitment@walsall.gov.uk
This page was last updated on 01 February 2010