- LDIAG
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Sustainable Social Services for Wales: A Framework for Action
On 17 February 2011, Deputy Minister for Social Services Gwenda Thomas launched a new white paper setting out how the Welsh Government will take social services and social care forward, and how they will work with partners to deliver this change.
Social services are crucially important services for the 150,000 people who use them every year. These are people who are facing some of the biggest difficulties they will ever face in their lives. But there are huge pressures of demand on social services, which are growing all the time. The Welsh Government's task is to make social services sustainable, to make sure they are there when people need them.
This is not just about money. Services need to be re-positioned and re-shaped to meet the changing needs and expectations of service users. This needs to happen in ways that draw on their strengths, and on those of the communities around them. Services also need to be able to respond to significant increases in demand. These include a growth in the number of looked after children and larger numbers of older people who are frail.
The Welsh Government plans to do this by giving a stronger direction for social services. In particular, they will:
• put in place a clear set of outcomes and a much stronger accountability framework;
• take a more focused approach to the improvement of social services;
• get on with delivering integrated services much more quickly, building on the examples we see all around Wales at the moment.
"We must build services around people not organisations."
The Advocacy Grant scheme
The Welsh Government's Advocacy Grant Scheme began in 2003. The LDIAG contributed to designing the application process and assessing the applications. The scheme has led to the creation of independent advocacy groups who are not dependant on money from the local authority that they may wish to challenge. Grants were originally paid through BILD and the scheme was due to end in March 2006. BILD completed a report into the scheme which the LDIAG discussed. The group recommended that the scheme continue for another five years. In January 2006 the Minister decided that the Advocacy Grant Scheme should continue for a further two years from 2006-07 and that the main part of the grant resources should be applied to sustain the activity of existing grant recipients. To find out more, click here to read the Minister's letter.
The Welsh Government’s (2007)
Statement on Policy and Practice for Adults with a Learning Disability made
significant reference to those people whose behaviour poses challenges to
services. In order to support agencies to monitor and further develop services
for this group of people, the Learning Disability Implementation Advisory Group
(LDIAG) has produced a Self-Assessment Checklist. The Checklist is a tool to
establish what is in place and working well for people with learning
disabilities and challenging behaviour in local areas.