Major recruitment push cutting social care delays

Extra social care staff have been recruited to cut delays for Powys residents who are ready to leave hospital but have care needs.

They include social workers, occupational therapists and enablement assessors who have been added to the county council’s Hospital and Front Door Teams, after it received a £1.3 million Pathways of Care Transformation Grant from the Welsh Government.

The extra social workers will allow the Hospital Team to cover community hospitals as well as district general hospitals (major hospitals), while the extra occupational therapists and enablement assessors will allow the Front Door Team to provide independence support to more people, including therapies where needed.

The council will also be allowing professionals, other than its own social workers, to make care assessments across the county, after trialling the approach in two residential homes. To make this happen it will be appointing a dedicated project officer who will work in partnership with colleagues in Powys Teaching Health Board.

Fees are also going to be paid in advance to some privately employed home care workers, as a retainer, to help secure their service in rural parts of the county, where provision has previously been patchy. And at the same time, the council will be reviewing its contracts with private care agencies, to see if tweaks to terms and conditions, and performance measures, can deliver further improvements.

The council will also be investing more money in prevention measures, through its Home Support service, aimed at cutting hospital admissions in the first place, and extending the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) app for transcribing assessments into all teams, including for partners working as trusted assessors.

Councillor Pete Roberts, Powys County Council’s Cabinet Member for a Caring Powys said: “We are using the extra funding from Welsh Government to do everything we can to reduce the delays being experienced by people waiting to be allocated a social worker, for a care assessment, or to start receiving community care or reablement.

“If we are successful in delivering the significant improvements I’m anticipating, I’m hoping this extra funding for community-based social care will become a permanent addition to the annual local government settlement so we can continue to innovate and transform our services saving the council and NHS money in the long term.”

The Pathways of Care Transformation Grant has seen £30 million allocated to county councils across Wales to spend on community-based social care during the current financial year.

The Welsh Government asked that Powys spends its share on reducing the number of people waiting for:

• Social worker allocation
• Completion of assessment by social care
• The start of a new community care package funded by social care
• A reablement community care package

PICTURES: Members of Powys County Council’s Hospital Team and Front Door Team which have been expanded to reduce hospital delays.