Two questions - have you any experience you can share?

[Noreen Blanluet]

Two questions have come out of recent conversations and maybe some of you on this network have relevant experience to share. They are:

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1. Often service users expect a social worker (for e.g.) to offer a service - they are used to the existing system. How to have new conversations to find out what the assets and resources are with them / their families / their communities? 

My hunch is that having open, humble conversations about the assets and resources the service provider can offer, as well as their limitations or gaps, could be a starting point. Would anyone with experience of this situation care to share? How does it go? Is it received with suspicion? What makes the process easier?

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2. The anxiety of families going through the transition into a co-productive way of working is often highlighted - there are so many unknowns and uncertainties, and they have a strong need for information and reassurance. 

I have heard comparatively little acknowledgement of the stresses of staff who are making the same transition. Today at the Talking Points seminar the trauma of adapting to a new way of working was mentioned, and the reluctance and "participation fatigue" that grows as each newfangled policy fad falls by the wayside.

On top of that, it is hardly surprising that staff are reluctant to engage with co-pro, which is after all a long-term solution, when day to day their job is at risk and they are busy keeping things afloat - not the ideal conditions for visionary buy-in. I am thinking particularly in local authorities. How do you reassure and engage in these difficult circumstances?

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Answers on a postcard please :)

[Paul Swann]

Responding to 1.

This is part of the focus of our sister network, the Wales Alliance for Citizen Directed Support (wacds.org.uk). Several of us here are WACDS Council members.

Some of the more forward thinking local authorities have successfully shifted to more holistic, person centred - and in some cases, citizen directed - assessments. "Citizen directed, outcomes focused, supported self-assessments" are what's needed. It's not rocket science and the social worker's role should be to enable an open, empathic conversation about the citizen's circumstances, identifying both the assets, skills, knowledge, experience and resources that the citizen has to contribute to their community, as well as the barriers to inclusion that they face and ways in which those barriers can be removed.

This assets model, which supports social inclusion, community involvement and independent living (defined by Disability Wales and the Welsh Government as that which enables disabled and other people to achieve there own goals and live their own lives in the way that they choose for themselves) can help transform traditional social services cultures based on a deficit model which creates dependence on services. 

Culture change isn't easy to achieve though, and the failure to name Citizen Directed Support on the face of the Social Services and Wellbeing Bill isn't helpful. We're assured that the regulations and code of practice will rectify this and it's vital that they do because some local authorities tend to avoid doing anything they don't have to. 

We have to get to the point where CDS is thoroughly embedded into social workers' practice and we will. We damn well will!

[Colin Heyman]

I am not speaking from experience of doing this here, but from experience of working with service providers.

We basically come from a model of services being provided on high by those who (supposedly) know best, the service providers. This has set up expectations on both sides. Additionally it has set up a comfort zone. For public service providers the comfort zone is about being the expert and providing the answer, for service users it is around having it all done for them. In moving to co-producing services, both sides will be going outside this comfort zone, even if co-pro is a much better way. It's not surprising there is anxiety and people want to stay with what they are confortable with. It’s like when you choose to move house. You may want to move house but often you still miss things from the old one!!

One technique I have used successfully in the past in similar situations, to get that ‘open, humble conversation’ going is to get both groups independently to make a list of their expectations first and what they think the other group’s expectations of them are, not just in terms of tasks they will do or what they will produce but also in terms of expectations around behaviour, skills etc.

Then both groups bring back their lists and the lists provide a good platform for discussion about what each party can and can’t do, what expectations they can and can’t meet. It needs some sensitive facilitation sometimes especially around the differences in the lists.

[Jan Huyton]

These are important topics requiring discussion and development. I have recently incorporated co-pro into the curriculum for our BA and MA programmes at Cardiff Met. In particular I hope to promote discussion and sharing of practice in relation to how managers, professional supervisors and colleagues can facilitate development and support for colleagues who are engaging, or attempting to engage, with co-pro. I shall encourage students to join this network and I hope this may help to take the discussion forward once the students are back in a few weeks.