jchr independent living inquiry visit to ecdp, 8 sept 2011

The evolving role of DPULOs

8 September 2011JCHR visit, Independent Living Inquiry

The evolving role of DPULOs 8 September 2011

ecdp: key facts• Established in 1995

• 39 staff, nearly £1.7m turnover– 52% of staff declare an impairment– Finance is a 65%-25%-10% mix

• 100% Board Members with a self-declared impairment

• Over 4,100 clients in 3 services across 3 local authority areas– IAG, Support Planning, Payroll

• 1,668 members– 21.6% have a learning disability– 6.8% have a long-term health condition– 5.2% have a mental health condition

• Over 170 volunteers


Our Voice-Business model

Business- +

+

0

Campaigning

Contracts only

Vo

ice


Voice-business in practice (1)• Support planning operating model

– Quality measures identified and developed by service users– Contract specification based on quality measures– Peer-led delivery through ecdp– Results:

• 16% of LA support plans = cash payment• 100% of ecdp support plans = cash payment

• Safeguarding– 93% of social workers think CRB checks for PAs should be mandatory– 2.5% of ecdp service users undertake free CRB checks of PAs– Implications for workforce development and regulation


Voice-business in practice (2)

• Right to Control– Engagement and consultation phase– Bid development in co-production with

statutory partners– SUs at every level of project governance

• Chair of Programme Board• Service User Reference Group• Member of Core Delivery Team

– Trailblazer delivery• Peer-led IAG• Peer-led support planning• Peer-led reviews


Voice-business in practice (3a)

• 3-year longitudinal study– Two overall aims:

• Understand impact of Personal Budgets on service user experiences

• Gather evidence on effectiveness of practices and processes that underpin implementation

– Participants• 46 service users (25 OP, 13 PSI, 8 LD)• 9 senior LA managers (Practitioners, OTs,

Service Managers, Social Workers)• 10 service providers


Voice-business in practice (3b)

• Findings from service users (demand-side)– Family and social networks vital for support

• Network => take-up of PB• PB => enabler of networks

– Finding services• Quality assurance of providers a key issue• Knowledge of market limited

– Personal skills vital to success• Confidence, assertiveness and flexibility

– Frontline staff crucial to choices available• But…


Voice-business in practice (3c)• Frontline staff

– Variation in engagement with choice• Some evidence of judgments being made prior to

offering choice• When SW confident, good outcomes follow

• Suppliers– Generally positive, good business opportunity– Attitudes strongly informed response

• PSI thought of as “suitable” for PBs• OP / LD thought of as “less suitable” for PBs

– Double standards over formal/informal workforce– Information asymmetry– … Slightly more than less providers proactively

adapting to PBs


Lived Experience• Lived experience is the experience and

expertise that disabled people have in their everyday lives.

• Two way process:- receive lived experience from service users- invite lived experience through comms

mechanisms (specific issues)

• Lived experience informs all of our work at ecdp; it enables us to represent the collective voice of disabled people in Essex.


Lived Experience• Disability hate crime

– Collected voice of members (focus groups, online survey) – Consulted with others involved; police, councils, services:

partnership working, not “reinventing the wheel”.Lived experience put us in position to make recommendations and work with partners to move them forward.

• Access to WorkChanges to Access to Work highlighted by members– Collected wider lived experience to inform submission to Sayce review (online survey)Lived experience approach enabled us to note recent changes and work to understand impact on disabled people

• DLA reform and PIPSince DLA’s replacement with PIP was announced, we have consulted with members – Collected lived experience (formation of pan-impairment reference group and online survey)


Prevention and early intervention

• Enhance = support and improve2008 4-year strategy

(2012)10-year strategy

(2012)


Our ambitions• Achieving prevention and early intervention

– Lived Experience as a pathway / means of opportunity– “The PB holders of today are the support planners of

tomorrow”

• Expanding demand-side of the market– People with rights under disability law– Approximately 11m people (1 in 5)– All impairment groups– Older people

• Joining up policy dots on the ground– Right to Control (Employment, Housing, Social Care)– Health and social care (potentially through HealthWatch)– Leadership and Service Leavers (through our

LeadingAbility programme)

jchr independent living inquiry visit to ecdp, 8 sept 2011

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