Outcomes of a Review of Prevention and Early Support Services for Adults consultation

We would like to thank everyone who took part and provided the 204 responses via the online questionnaire or through 1-2-1s and focus group discussions.

The feedback we received was considered by Barnet Council’s Adults and Safeguarding Committee on 23 January 2017 (item 10) where a final decision was made on the proposals.

We have given further feedback here, under ‘We asked, You said, We did’. We have been working with the providers and service users to inform them of the final decision and next steps.

You can read the full findings from the consultation in this report.

Overview

Across the country, adult social care is under growing pressure. The amount of money available for councils to spend has reduced and will continue to reduce over the coming years. There is also growing demand for adult social care services.

To help address these challenges, the council has already changed its adult social care services to make sure they provide better quality, are more effective and deliver the best possible value for money.

However, the council is approaching the limit of savings that can be achieved through providing services more efficiently.

We, like many other councils, are moving away from funding universal services to focussing on those organisations which can show clear evidence of providing targeted support for those at risk of their care and support needs escalating.

In the light of these changes the council has now conducted a review of all its prevention and early support services for adults to ensure that they:

• are performing as well as they can
• are aimed at people who need them most
• are based on evidence of the best types of prevention services.
• provide maximum value for money
• do not duplicate other services available
• focus on preventing the things that we know increase people’s need for services, such as being isolated.

On 10 November 2016, the Adults and Safeguarding Committee considered a paper which provided the outcome of this reviews and proposals for their future provision.

We are now seeking your views on our proposals. We have provided further information on our proposals in our consultation document here, and you can read the full Committee full paper here.

Why We Are Consulting

We want to know what residents and interested parties think of our proposals on the future provision of the following services:

• Support Planning and Brokerage (delivered by Inclusion Barnet)
• Wellbeing Services (delivered by Chinese Mental Health Association)
• Mental health project (delivered by Barnet Asian Women’s Association)
• Community Arts Project (delivered by Community Focus)