Agenda item

RESOLVED:

·         that the report be noted along with the Committee’s interest in being involved with this piece of work.

Tom Brown (Executive Director for Community Services), Tristan Brice (Joint Commissioning Lead) and Andrea Benson (Service Improvement and Assurance Manager), introduced the report. This was followed by questions from the Committee members. The following key points were noted:

6.1. It was noted that Adult Social Care (ASC) was due to be assessed by Care Quality Commission (CQC) within the next 2 years and that co-production would form a large part of that assessment.

6.2. The report recognised that while there were some areas of co-production good practice across ASC, more work was needed to embed a systemic practice around co-production at all levels throughout the organisation.

6.3. In March 2023, ASC commissioned the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to develop an infrastructure and approach to co-production across the ASC service and embed it across all ways of working.

6.4. SCIE’s initial findings confirmed what was already being discussed around the Council not having a strategy, toolkit or guidance in terms of how to move forward with co-production at a strategic level.

6.5. The project team had identified and liaised with a wide range of stakeholder groups and were now phoning individual clients and attending groups to raise awareness of the resident co-production group. However, SCIE and the ASC project team had encountered significant challenges with resident engagement. Therefore, officers were asking Committee members to use their networks and encourage residents to get involved in these co-production sessions. The first co-production workshop was on 26^th of February 2024.

6.6. Officers shared the experience of co-production via the example of the maximising wellbeing at home contract procurement work. There had been significant learnings from this process. Officers also asked for the Committee’s support towards developing a co-production strategy for future procurement.

6.7. One learning from the co-production work with unpaid carers had been around allowing longer time for the procurement exercise to develop. There had been a year-long specification process and consultation, but it was noted that consultation wasn’t the same as co-production. After understanding how resident engagement functioned during the procurement exercise, the unpaid carers forum was created to allow for more efficient co-production.

6.8. Nigel Bowness from Healthwatch Lewisham expressed that Healthwatch welcomed the Council’s decision to co-produce and also appreciated the candour of this report. It was discussed that having a corporate strategic approach to co-production was crucial and would help ensure consistency and identify resources. Capacity building amongst residents and staff was also required to ensure the best use of available resources.

6.9. It was noted that the work of the Disabled People’s Commission was not just an adult social care or disability issue but rather a wider work based on citizenship and equality.

6.10. Committee members asked for more details about the co-production sessions scheduled for residents so that they could encourage residents to attend. Officers agreed to circulate posters about these sessions.

6.11. It was discussed that explaining ‘co-production’ was a challenging task and it was worth exploring how this could be communicated to residents in a simpler language.

6.12. The work being done by Lewisham Mayoresses around promoting the voice of older adults was discussed and the Committee members were invited to attend one of the sessions.

6.13. It was important to engage residents in this work around co-production. It was discussed that to facilitate that, it would be useful to know the different resident networks that already existed in the borough.

RESOLVED:

·         that the report be noted along with the Committee’s interest in being involved with this piece of work.