LDAG News 6 Summer/Autumn 2014 Easy Read Engish

Changes in Welsh Government Number 6 Summer-Autumn 2014

On 11 September 2014 First Minister Carwyn Jones told everyone on Twitter that he was making some changes to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet means the people in the Welsh Government who are in charge of policy – the Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

A Cabinet reshuffle is when the jobs of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers change so different people are in charge of different things.

Carwyn Jones decided to bring Leighton Andrews back into the Cabinet.

Leighton Andrews is the new Minister for Public Services.

He will be responsible for public sector reform. This means changes to public services like local councils.

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He will also be in charge of how public services are run.

Since 2007 Gwenda Thomas was the Deputy Minister for Social Services but she has now left the Cabinet.

There is no Deputy Minister for Social Services in the new Cabinet.

Mark Drakeford is still the Minister for Health and Social Services.

The Learning Disability Advisory Group will now give advice to Mark Drakeford instead of Gwenda Thomas.

Vaughan Gething has a new job as Deputy Minister for Health. This means he will be responsible for the health services in Wales.

Jeff Cuthbert and John Griffiths have both left the Cabinet.

Julie James joined the Cabinet for the first time as Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology.

Lesley Griffiths is now the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty.

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She has a long list of responsibilities that covers lots of important areas:

Welfare Reform – changes to benefits

Rights of children and young people

Regeneration – making some parts of Wales better places to live and work

Housing

Disabled Facilities Grants and Physical Adaptation Grants – money to make your home more accessible

Digital inclusion – making sure everyone in Wales can use the internet

Equality – people’s rights to be treated fairly

Voluntary sector and volunteering.

Jane Hutt is still Minister for Finance but now she is also responsible for Government Business.

Carwyn Jones said that his new Cabinet will be able to help Wales make some important changes in the future.

Here is the full list of the new Cabinet:

Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales

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Edwina Hart, Minister for Economy, Science and Transport

Mark Drakeford, Minister for Health and Social Services

Huw Lewis, Minister for Education and Skills

Jane Hutt, Minister for Finance and Government Business

Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services

Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty

Carl Sargeant, Minister for Natural Resources

Vaughan Gething, Deputy Minister for Health

Ken Skates, Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism

Rebecca Evans, Deputy Minister for Farming and Food

Julie James, Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology.

You can find out more about what the Cabinet and what they do on the Welsh Government website: http://wales.gov.uk/about/cabinet/?lang=en.

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The Learning Disability Advisory Group or LDAG met on 10 September in Cardiff.

They talked about lots of different things.

Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act

Anthony Jordan from Welsh Government gave a presentation on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act.

On 1 May 2014 the Queen signed to say that the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act could become law in Wales.

It will not fully become law until April 2016 when all the rules and guidelines have been written to go with the Act.

The Act aims to:

give people more choice and control in their lives

help people to stay healthy and well

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help people to be more independent for longer

help and support people as early as possible before their needs get worse

get services to work together to support people in their local communities.

The Act is also about making social services sustainable. This means that social services can keep helping people in the future even if there are more people who need help and less money to spend on services.

There will be lots of new rules and guidelines to go with the Act.

These rules and guidelines will be called regulations and codes of practice.

They will explain how people and organisations must work so that they follow the new law.

Local councils must follow all the new rules and guidelines.

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Welsh Government is helping services to get ready for the changes.

They are giving money to local authorities called a ‘Delivering Transformation Grant’.

They will also be helping to train staff on the changes.

When will the changes happen?

There will be consultations in November 2014 and summer 2015.

The consultations will give people the chance to tell Welsh Government what they think of all the new rules and guidelines.

After the consultations, the National Assembly will look at the rules and guidelines to decide if they are happy with them.

Once the National Assembly are happy with them, then they can become law.

There will be staff training on the changes in 2015 and 2016.

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The Act and all the rules and guidelines will then become law in April 2016.

You can find out more about the Act on the Welsh Government and National Assembly websites:

Welsh Government http://wales.gov.uk/topics/health/socialcare/act/?lang=en

National Assembly for Wales http://www.senedd.assemblywales.org/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=5664

Adult Practice Reviews

Richard Chivers from Welsh Government gave a presentation on the new Adult Practice Reviews.

Adult Practice Reviews used to be called Serious Case Reviews.

They look at cases where something has gone badly wrong to try to make sure it does not happen again.

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Welsh Government wrote new guidance on when and how Adult Practice Reviews should take place.

They asked people what they thought of the new guidance.

They started trying out the new reviews between January and July 2014.

The final version of the new guidance will be sent out soon.

There will also be training for staff on how to carry out the new reviews.

The Adult Practice Reviews are about learning from what has happened to make services better and keep people safe.

Safeguarding Adults Boards are in charge of Adult Practice Reviews.

A group of people called a panel are chosen to carry out each Adult Practice Review.

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They write a report about what they found out from the review and what they think should be done in the future.

This report helps people to learn from mistakes and change the way they do things.

Cases are reviewed when people have been very worried about something that happened to someone.

There are rules in the guidance about when a review must be carried out.

These rules are for adults at risk.

An adult at risk is a person who:

is, or might be, being abused or neglected and

has needs for care and support and

because of those needs, cannot protect themselves from being abused or neglected.

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An Adult Practice Review must be carried out if an adult at risk:

dies or

hurts themselves very badly or

is sexually abused

and

people think or know that the person was abused or neglected.

What happens next?

The guidance will be sent out soon.

When the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act becomes law in April 2016 then the guidance will also become law.

Welsh Government will be training people on the new guidance.

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What have the sub-groups been doing? Making services better for people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour

This sub-group wrote a report for Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services.

The report was about the top 5 things that need to be done to make services better for people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour in Wales.

Welsh Government has said that they agree with the report.

The Deputy Minister asked the sub-group to carry on working on the 5 ideas in the report.

She also asked the sub-group to write action plans for how everything in the report will be done and by when.

The sub-group works closely with the Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice (CB CoP).

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The sub-group is working in 4 small groups to write the action plans about what needs to be done and by when:

Group 1 is about services working together to plan and pay for services.

Group 2 is about having information on how many people there are with a learning disability and challenging behaviour who might need services.

Group 3 is about making sure staff have the right skills and training to support people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour.

Group 4 is about checking services to make sure they are safe and good quality.

Number 5 on the list is about moving people who are living a long way from home back to their local area.

But we should only move people if there are good quality services to support them in their local area.

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This is why the sub-group are working on the other 4 ideas first so that they can make sure that there are good quality local services before moving people back home.

The sub-group are working with Welsh Government to make sure that their action plans work well with the new laws and policies that are happening in Wales.

They will report to Welsh Government every 6 months to let them know what they are doing.

The sub-group will also tell Welsh Government what they think about some of the new rules and guidelines that they are writing to go with the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act.

Health

This sub-group has written a list of 6 things that it wants to work on:

How and why people with a learning disability have worse health than other people living in Wales.

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What difference do annual health checks make to the health of people with a learning disability?

How changes to social policy can make a difference to the health and support needs of people with a learning disability.

Looking at all types of NHS services and thinking about how they can make them better for people with a learning disability.

What research there is in Wales about the health of people with a learning disability.

Finding good ways to treat people with a learning disability and sharing these ideas across Wales.

The sub-group will write a report for LDAG about everything they have found out by early 2015.

Advocacy

Joe Powell, Director of All Wales People First, was leading the sub-group on advocacy.

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But Joe has decided not to the lead the sub-group anymore.

He thinks it should be led by someone who does not work in advocacy or self-advocacy.

Joe wrote to the LDAG co-Chairs to tell them that he was not going to lead the group anymore.

He told them that he thought it would be good to ask someone who works in research to lead the group instead.

Before he wrote to the co-Chairs, Joe had a meeting with Mike Shooter about advocacy.

Mike was leading a group looking at advocacy services for children in Wales.

The group wrote a report for the Deputy Minister for Social Services about what they found out.

Joe and Mike both thought that there is not enough money for advocacy services.

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Lots of advocacy services might have to close down because they have not got enough money to keep supporting people.

LDAG members said it would be good to know what advocacy services there are in Wales for people with a learning disability and their carers.

All Wales People First said they could tell LDAG about People First self-advocacy groups in Wales.

Wayne Crocker said that Mencap Cymru could try to find out about other advocacy services across Wales.

The British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD) has written a report.

The report is about what they thought might happen to advocacy services when the money from the Welsh Advocacy Grant stopped in March 2014.

The report will be out soon.

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The LDAG want to work with Mike Shooter’s group on advocacy.

They also want to work with the Welsh Government’s group looking at advocacy policy in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act.

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The Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice or CB CoP met on 4 July and 24 September 2014.

In the July meeting, the group talked about the LDAG report sent to the Deputy Minister for Social Services on making services better for people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour.

Welsh Government has said that they agree with the report.

One of the ideas in the report was a learning disability register for Wales.

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The learning disability register will have lots of information about people with a learning disability living in Wales.

It will help services plan for the future so that they know how many people will need different types of support.

The CB CoP came up with a list of different types of information that should be on the register.

Here are some of the other presentations from the 2 meetings.

Touch Trust and Dementia

Touch Trust works with disabled children and adults using art, music and movement.

Karen Woodley talked about Touch Trust’s new work with people who have dementia.

Dementia is a condition that makes it difficult to remember things.

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People with dementia can get very confused and find it difficult to look after themselves.

You can find out more about Touch Trust on their website: www.touchtrust.co.uk.

Driving Up Quality

The Driving Up Quality code was written by a group of organisations in England.

It was written after what happened in Winterbourne View, a care home in England where people with a learning disability were abused.

Over 100 organisations have signed up to the code.

The code is based on 5 standards:

1. Support is focused on the person.

2. The person is supported to have an ordinary and meaningful life.

3. Care and support focuses on people being happy and having a good quality of life.

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4. A good culture is important to the organisation.

5. Managers and board members lead and run the organisation well.

Organisations can sign up to the code and find all the information for free on the website: www.drivingupquality.org.uk.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)

Richard Griffith from Swansea University came to the September meeting to talk about the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

Deprivation of Liberty means taking away a person’s freedom so that they cannot go wherever they want.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are part of a very complicated piece of law in England and Wales.

Richard told the group about the history of this law.

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The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and Code of Practice were written after a very important legal case in 1998 at the European Court of Human Rights.

The court said that it was against a person’s human rights for a doctor to keep them in hospital when their family and carers did not want them to.

Human rights are the same for everyone.

The right to freedom is the same for disabled people and people who are not disabled.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and Code of Practice became law in England and Wales in April 2009.

The Safeguards help to protect the human rights of people who cannot make important decisions for themselves.

This could mean:

people with a learning disability

people with mental health problems

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older people living in care homes.

The Safeguards mean that services must prove that taking away a person’s freedom is the best thing for that person.

Richard Griffith then talked about some other cases that went to the Supreme Court to decide if the people’s freedom had been taken away.

The Supreme Court decided that they had all had their freedom taken away because they could not choose to leave the place where they were living.

The court said that it was nothing to do with how good the support was or how nice the place where they were living was.

Sometimes taking away a person’s freedom when they cannot make their own important decisions is the best thing for that person.

In these cases the person must be protected by the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

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The court said that a person should be protected under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards if:

they are always being looked after and controlled.

This could mean that someone needs to know where the person is going and what they are doing all the time.

and

they cannot leave.

This could mean that staff would not want the person to leave because they think it could be dangerous.

It does not matter if the person is happy to be looked after and controlled all the time.

It does not matter if they do not say that they want to leave.

The person’s freedom has still been taken away and they must be protected to make sure it is the best thing for them.

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Care homes and hospitals must ask a local authority or health board if they can take away a person’s freedom.

For people living in supported living, their own homes or residential schools, the Court of Protection must decide if a person’s freedom can be taken away.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are only for people who are 16 or older.

Children under 16 are protected by the Children’s Act.

Local authorities and health boards must keep checking on people who have had their freedom taken away.

They must prove that it is still the best thing for those people.

Services cannot use the Deprivation of Liberty Standards to stop a person from seeing their family or friends.

They also cannot use them to stop a person from moving to a new home or service.

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They can only do these things by going to court using the Mental Capacity and Mental Health laws.

Using video stories

Sarah Day works for a training and advice company called Practice Solutions.

She talked about the ways that organisations can use video stories.

Video stories can be very powerful.

They can give people the chance to show what they have done or how they are feeling.

They can help people to have more of a say and greater control over their lives.

Video stories can also be used to show how people’s lives have been changed.

This can help to show the people who pay for services the difference that person-centred support can make to people’s lives.

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Continuing Health Care for people with a learning disability

Jenny Jagus from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board gave a presentation about Continuing Health Care (CHC).

Continuing Health Care means that the NHS pays for all your care and support.

There are new guidelines about Continuing Health Care and a new tool to help staff decide who should get it.

Jenny said that lots of people have asked Welsh Government to look at their claims for Continuing Health Care to see if the NHS should have paid for their care and support.

There have also been lots of complaints to the Ombudsman about Continuing Health Care.

The Ombudsman looks into serious complaints when people are not happy with the way they have been treated.

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It is clear that there have been problems with the way staff decide who should get Continuing Health Care.

The complaints to the Ombudsman have shown that there are some key problems:

Staff do not fully understand the assessment process and how to decide if someone should get Continuing Health Care.

They do not carry out the assessments properly or do not look at all the important facts.

They do not include families or carers in the assessment process.

They do not follow the rules for Continuing Health Care properly.

They do not explain why they have made their decision.

Some people think that Continuing Health Care means any type of health funding.

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But Continuing Health Care only means care and support that it is fully paid for by the NHS.

Jenny said that it is important to explain to people what might happen to their other benefits or Direct Payments if they start getting Continuing Health Care.

People also need to know that they have the right to say no to a Continuing Health Care assessment or to stop the assessment process whenever they want.

Jenny said that staff often make mistakes when they are using the tool to decide who should get Continuing Health Care.

Going forward

The new guidelines have been written to make sure everyone understands how to decide if someone should get Continuing Health Care.

Welsh Government has written training for people on how to use the new guidelines and tool.

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The training will take place across Wales.

In the future there will also be training on how to use the tool to assess people with a learning disability or mental health problems.

You can find Easy Read information about Continuing Health Care on the Welsh Government website: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/health/nhswales/healthservice/chc-framework/?skip=1&lang=en.

If you have any examples of good ways to help people with a learning disability to have a Continuing Health Care assessment, please send them to [email protected].

You can find all the presentations from the Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice meetings on the LDAG website: http://www.ldag.info/cb-cop/meetings/presentations-and-papers.aspx.

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For more information or to let us know what you think, phone Sam Williams on 029 20681177 or e-mail: [email protected]. Look at the website www.ldag.info or follow us on Facebook and Twitter @LDAdvisoryGroup

http://wales.gov.uk/topics/health/nhswales/healthservice/chc-framework/?skip=1&lang=en









mailto:[email protected]

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Documents

LDAG News 6 Summer/Autumn 2014 Easy Read Engish