Think Local Act Personal, an alliance of over 30 national social care partners committed to improving the delivery of personalised community-based support, has launched a set of three tools to help improve the provision of information and advice available in social care.
The tools have been created to show how people find out about social care support and the challenges that they face in getting good information and advice.
The first tool is the ‘Advice and information needs in adult social care’ interactive map. The map demonstrates people’s typical journeys through the complicated care system and identifies the “pinch points” where councils and other organisations need to improve the information and advice on offer to people and families.
The second tool is the social care jargon buster; a plain English guide to the 52 most commonly used, but little understood, social care words and phrases.
And the third tool is a set of principles for how councils can provide high quality information and advice. The principles set out the main issues that councils need to consider when developing a comprehensive and coherent local care and support information and advice strategy.
Providing people with good information about care and support services mean that they are able to make their own informed choices about the services that they use and, as outlined by Think Local Act Personal co-chairs Marjory Broughton and Clenton Farquharson:
“Unfortunately, many people who use care and support services and their carers are overwhelmed and confused by the information available. It can be complicated, full of jargon and may not be reliable. Good information and advice provided at the right time helps people to take control of their lives – it is at the very heart of personalised care.”
Chair of TLAP’s Information and Advice work stream and SCIE Chief Executive Andrea Sutcliffe went on to say:
“This is just the first stage of our work – we will be building on the good practice that does exist and listening to feedback from people who use services and carers, information providers and other key stakeholders to develop additional resources over the coming year.”
For more information please visit the Think Local Act Personal site.
Please contact Jaimee Lewis, Senior Communications Adviser at: jaimee.lewis@scie.org.uk or Tel: 07850 774453.
Information supplied by: Jaimee Lewis, Senior Communications Advisor.