Annie Gunner Logan Shares Her Superb Insights into Grownup Social Care

Estimated studying time: 13 minutes

The extra I study in regards to the world of grownup social care, the extra I’m in awe of the superb work that every individual does to empower and help folks to stay their finest lives. To be concerned in even a small means feels actually particular.

Over the past yr, we’ve seen and skilled important adjustments as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. The influence on social care has been immense, but it surely has additionally highlighted the pressing want for improved sector help given the vital function they serve in society. With service deficiencies magnified by the pandemic along with a renewed appreciation for care employees, points can not be ignored.

It was my pleasure to speak to Annie Gunner Logan, CEO of the Coalition of Care and Help Suppliers in Scotland (CCPS) about her background and the way CCPS helps the social care sector. Discussing how social help providers have developed over time, we additionally discover the place these providers are heading contemplating the present local weather in Scotland.    

We stay in an ageing society. However what does that basically imply?

Within the subsequent 20 years the stability between younger and outdated will shift to the purpose the place there will likely be one aged individual for each two folks of working age.  The problem this presents is two-fold, a discount in relations in a position to present help and a smaller pool {of professional} carers.

TL Tech is a Sensible Houses Options supplier with a distinction.  We assist folks get the very best out of sensible dwelling applied sciences and create distinctive dwelling environments to satisfy their wants and finances.  Our imaginative and prescient is to “create a house that cares for you as you age”.

Sensible dwelling applied sciences have the facility to remodel lives, particularly for the susceptible in our society. This weblog sequence will likely be seeking to showcase the alternatives, discover out extra in regards to the folks working on this discipline and the way we will create a world the place “sensible meets variety”®.

How did you get into working in social care?

Like most individuals, I ended up the place I’m in the present day through a circuitous route. I can’t say that I left faculty eager to get into social care, however right here I’m 40 years later. After learning languages at college, I had a little bit of a short-lived educational profession in France. Throughout this time I realised that my actual pursuits have been in social coverage and the way governments responded to social wants.

I made a decision to retrain and qualify in social coverage. My first step was to safe a job as an info officer with the Scottish Affiliation of Psychological Well being (SAMH). I moved from there to the NHS the place I labored on a venture referred to as Well being Search Scotland. As one of many first initiatives to help folks to entry details about their well being immediately over the cellphone slightly than via a medical skilled, this turned one of many precursors to what’s now NHS 24. From there, I went to work for an organisation referred to as Kids in Scotland, which is the nationwide company for kids’s providers.

Whereas I used to be on the NHS a brand new organisation referred to as Group Care Suppliers Scotland – now referred to as the Coalition of Care and Help Suppliers in Scotland – caught my consideration. Shaped to symbolize social care suppliers within the non-profit and voluntary sector, they work to help and guarantee an atmosphere that champions high quality of care. In order that’s CCPS, and I’ve been there for simply over 20 years.

You could have seen plenty of adjustments over that point then?

Once I first got here into grownup social care within the late nineties it was a extremely transformational time as a result of giant closure program of long-stay hospitals that started within the late eighties. Earlier than that folks with studying disabilities and psychological well being issues as a rule have been institutionalised. There was a strong human rights motion that recognized these establishments as a human rights disaster – when you don’t have a medical must be in a hospital, you shouldn’t be in a single. As a substitute, folks have been supported to stay in group based mostly alternate options by social care suppliers, the vast majority of which have been designed by voluntary organisations. Many CCPS members have been there on the time, doing this extraordinarily necessary work.

Whereas group dwelling was an enchancment over earlier hospital care preparations, folks’s decisions have been restricted and their help wants have been determined for them. We’re nonetheless on a journey to empower people to make their very own choices and design their very own help. When the Social Care Self-directed Help Act (2013) was launched, what didn’t occur was a change to the methods surrounding it, significantly the procurement methods. Nonetheless, it’s since been realised how damaging commodification and underfunding is to how social care help is delivered. For social care to correctly empower people, we all know that it’s not about them being in providers in any respect, however for them to have the ability to personalise the help they obtain. That is what self-directed help is all about and though it has been fairly a protracted journey, the following interval goes to be probably the most thrilling!

What’s the most rewarding a part of your job?

For me personally, the folks I work with at CCPS are probably the most rewarding a part of my job. We’re a membership affiliation with over 80 members throughout the third sector and nonprofit suppliers of social care in Scotland. You’d be very exhausting pressed to discover a extra inspiring group of leaders. The CEOs of every of those organisations are completely extraordinary. Their dedication and dedication to empowering the folks that their providers help is outstanding. Being part of one thing that adjustments folks’s lives is, in itself, very rewarding. That’s what nourishes me on this function.

Inform us extra about CCPS, and the organisation’s function.           

We assist to establish and symbolize the pursuits and issues of members in order that they’ll do their finest work and maximise their influence to satisfy social wants. A giant a part of that is serving to to distil what their frequent pursuits are. If you’ve received over 80 totally different organisations who’re all unbiased of one another and report back to their very own board of governors, then that’s fairly a process in itself. The agenda for all of those organisations coalesces round environmental components just like the sustainability of funding for social care, coverage and observe growth, laws and laws.

We spend a big quantity of our time scrutinising coverage and reviewing draft laws to grasp the way it would possibly influence our members. Is it going to assist them do their finest work or not? Whether it is, then we’ll assist develop it; if it isn’t, then we problem it.

We additionally present a platform for members to talk to one another and be extra collaborative. That is necessary as a result of social care is a really aggressive atmosphere. We facilitate and supply the chance for organisations to work collectively on the problems that they’ve in frequent. Up to now this has been difficult, however I feel we’re undoubtedly transferring from a tradition of competitors in the direction of that of collaboration.

How has the final yr been for CCPS and your members?

I can’t lie, it has been very difficult. When Covid struck, any plans we had principally went out the window as the whole organisation needed to pivot in the direction of supporting our members with the fast adjustments: serving to members entry PPE, upkeep of their providers throughout lockdown, testing and vaccinations in addition to supporting household contact in a lockdown atmosphere.

Social care has completely been on the frontline of all of this, significantly in care houses. Nonetheless, now we’re on the stage of speaking about how we’re going to use this expertise to make issues higher and construct a restoration for social care. That is already underway with the cupboard secretary commissioning Derek Feeley, who was the NHS chief government, to overview social care in Scotland. He revealed his report in February which is implausible! We have been in a position to present enter via our personal many years of research, subsequently plenty of his suggestions replicate what we now have been saying.

Covid was an enormous problem, but it surely has uncovered among the flaws within the system and now I feel there’s a shared dedication to do one thing about it. Somewhat frustratingly, some folks in positions of authority and political energy appeared to see the issues for the primary time through the pandemic; whereas folks like me throughout the sector have been banging on about them for many years! The truth that they’ve now acknowledged these and wish to do one thing about them although is what issues.

What’s attention-grabbing is that every one the political events have now included social care inside their manifestos and discuss in regards to the urgency of implementing system adjustments. We determined to host a pre-election hustings for the primary time as a result of social care was so strongly featured throughout the events. That in itself is a extremely good signal. I feel it will be fairly troublesome now for any celebration or authorities to de-prioritise social care at this level.

Are there any initiatives that you’re presently engaged on?

There will likely be a little bit of a wait now to see what the federal government needs to do in regards to the Feeley report suggestions, however we’re ploughing on.

‘Large Concepts’ was one thing that we began pre-Feeley. For a very long time, it has been felt that the aggressive tendering processes for social care doesn’t work. ‘Large Concepts’ take a look at the choice fashions to the present aggressive market. The report isn’t a blueprint of what must be carried out, or a brand new system to impose on social care suppliers. We’re making an attempt to create an atmosphere and tradition the place folks work collectively to search out their very own alternate options and options.

The opposite massive initiative we’re concerned in for the time being is round what we name truthful work. The pay and standing of social care employees may be very low as a result of the aggressive tendering and commissioning atmosphere has created a really Amazon like atmosphere. In plenty of dwelling care, folks receives a commission by the minute, which is loopy. There isn’t a single different public service that does it this fashion. The social care workforce is undervalued and underpaid.

We’re presently having not less than 4 conferences per week about this. The chair of the truthful work in social care working group will publish the findings to the cupboard secretary on the finish of Could, with suggestions for issues like minimal phrases and situations for social care workforce, minimal requirements for efficient voice for the workforce and the ruling out of misuse of zero hour contracts.

What are your views on using know-how in grownup social care?

CCPS has a digital program the place we’re making an attempt to help organisations to embrace and undertake know-how. There are three ranges, the primary one is at a service degree with what I might name the devices, equivalent to telecare and assisted dwelling. Covid has accelerated us into adopting know-how at a larger pace, significantly digital communication strategies like Zoom to attach with folks after we can’t be there in individual.

Pre-covid, one of many greatest drivers for implementing know-how options was saving cash. The notion was individuals are costly and devices are usually not, however I feel that it is a false impression. Covid has additionally taught us the boundaries of know-how, as it will possibly by no means be a alternative for human interplay, particularly when that’s really what folks want and need.

The second degree is how digital methods may also help organisations run extra effectively. We help our members to take a look at issues like workforce rota administration, funds, logistics, and so on. The final degree is knowledge, which is how digital can be utilized strategically to tell and enhance providers. Knowledge might be probably the most difficult bit due to the complexity of managing the entry and interfaces. How can we create knowledge platforms that everyone can entry and feed into in order that we now have a holistic system?

Necessities for reporting are sometimes set earlier than anybody has actually thought via how they’re going for use. And due to the tradition that we’re during which may be very threat averse, with micromanagement and low ranges of belief, plenty of social care suppliers monitor at a really advantageous degree of element. They really feel I’ve received to gather this knowledge as a result of sooner or later I may be referred to as to account for it or I would like to have the ability to present how I’ve spent the cash, how I’ve used the sources, what number of hours of help has been used, and so on. A variety of this knowledge simply “sits in a drawer”.

The important thing query to be requested right here is does the information assist make social care extra sustainable? Is it going to empower folks to make their very own decisions? Is it going to result in higher high quality? Once more, Covid has given us all a kick up the bottom in regards to the worth of digital, but in addition I feel it ought to make us far more considerate about how, why and to what finish we use it    

What recommendation do you will have for folks considering transferring into working in social care?

Do it, simply do it.

Again in 2005 to 2006, Willie Roe did a overview of social work providers, together with social care. He referred to as his report ‘Altering Lives’ as a result of that’s what it’s about. A variety of public providers are about fixing issues or attaining issues. In case you’re within the hearth service, you place fires out. In case you’re within the police it’s about arrest ranges or group security. Within the NHS, it’s about cures & interventions. With social care, that’s actually not what we’re about. It’s not like “oh, right here’s an issue. I’m going to repair it”.

Social care is about standing alongside individuals who have challenges of their lives. Generally that’s a incapacity, their psychological well being, an impairment they have been born with or one thing that occurred to them equivalent to home violence or an dependancy. In social care you’re supporting people who find themselves coping with massive challenges to have the ability to have interaction in society, similar to everybody else.  In social care you’re standing alongside that individual and also you’re supporting them to stay their finest life.  Generally you’ll be able to assist them to beat these challenges and typically you’ll be able to’t, however you’re nonetheless standing alongside them to assist change their life for the higher.

I began off this piece saying how in awe I’m of the work being carried out in social care.  What makes this much more superb is that almost all of that is delivered by voluntary organisations who’re moved to make significant enhancements to folks’s lives. Think about if all of us had this a lot ardour for the work we do?    

This piece might have simply been twice as lengthy. I feel this interview has been one of the vital insightful conversations I’ve ever had and  I hope you will have loved attending to know Annie and the work that CCPS do. A variety of what Annie spoke about has additionally been highlighted in my earlier interviews with Donald Macaskill from Scottish Care and Linda Grey from Encourage PTL.  Do verify these out on the weblog!

If you wish to preserve up-to-date with Annie and the CCPS actions checkout their web site.

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