Adult Social Care strategy launched in St Helens Borough to help people live happier, healthier lives

Article date: 8 November 2024

Priorities developed for the council to build an outstanding adult social care offer include:

·       Continuing to build relationships between adult social care and individuals so they feel supported

·       Working together to empower individuals to make their own decisions about care and support

·       Co-produce assessments and care plans so individuals are in control of decisions made around care and support

·       Ensuring information is easier to access and understand working with communities on how materials can be further revised

·       Continuing to be creative and ambitious for the future involving people using services, carers and residents

·       Ensuring staff are well informed and there is consistency of practice through the new practice model

·       Everyday experiences feel fair and right

Explaining the purpose of the strategy, St Helens Borough Council's Director of Adult Social Care, Jamaila Hussain, said:

"Our Adult Care strategy highlights the priorities that our residents want us to focus on and outlines the key pledges that we are proposing to take forward including new practice models that we're looking to embed.

"There are currently 38,500 older adults in St Helens Borough who are supported by the local authority everyday - whether it's to live independently, or with dementia and long-term needs care - with around £70m of the council's overall budget spent on social care every year.

"Despite this, demand for Adult Social Care services is growing and many people are needing more complex care and support. This is where our ambitious strategy comes in - a vision of where we want to be in the next three years and how we go about achieving this."

Shaped and co-produced by more than 300 people - including residents, service, carers and staff - on what improvements they would like to see in adult social care, Enabling People to Live Healthier, Happier Lives (Adult Social Care Strategy 2024 - 2027) outlines big and ambitious key pledges to take the highly in demand service forward, as well as the new practice models to form a strength-based approach to help keep people at home for longer.

A key aspect of the model framework is the 'reablement - home first' approach which focuses on empowering individuals who may have had a spell in hospital to regain the confidence to perform everyday tasks for themselves.

To witness an example of this being caried out in the local community, senior St Helens Borough councillors recently visited Brookfield Support Centre - which provides respite care for residents recently discharged from hospital but not quite ready to return to their own home - to see how smart assisted technology and artificial technology is being implemented to improve mobility, support people living with dementia, as well as reduce falls and social isolation - all part of efforts to enable residents to live independent lives.

Jamaila added: "The strategy sets out who we are, what we do and how we want to - and will - do things going forward. And in doing that we will improve how we help people life healthier, happier lives as a council working with you, for you."

For more information on adult social care support available in St Helens Borough, visit: www.sthelens.gov.uk/adults