Working together to improve customer experience

The first key element of Personalised Adult Social Care in Putting People First is:

‘Local authority leadership accompanied by authentic partnership working with the local NHS, other statutory agencies, third and private sector providers, users and carers and the wider local community to create a new, high quality care system which is fair, accessible and responsive to the individual needs of those who use services and their carers.’ (DH, 2008, p2)

This Change Project identifies ways to support practitioners to work more effectively with other agencies. It focuses on what makes relationships with other agencies work well so that professionals can respond in a personalised way. This is more essential than ever given the expectations on social care and the resource constraints it operates under.

The Change Project was requested by our network of Partner agencies. The focus of the project was agreed following an Expert Knowledge Exchange and consideration of the best use of ripfa support and expertise.

All that we do is informed by the views of carers and service users, and is focused on improving their experience of accessing and using services.

Practice Knowledge Exhanges

research in practice for adults  has competed an evidence overview to identify the key messages about how service users and carers experience inter-agency working and what works in the way agencies work together. These messages and examples have been shared with practitioners and carers  to support reflection, discussion and knowledge exchange.

We held four Practice Knowledge Exchanges in different regions from January - April 2011. The aim of these one-day workshops was for carers and practitioners to come together and share their expertise and experience of how agencies work together, in order to improve services for carers and the people they care for.

The workshops:

• Combined carer and practitioner views and experience with the messages from research on how agencies work together
• Shared what works well and not so well, and discussed what can be done to improve the experience of accessing and using services
• Identified actions that can be taken locally to make a difference.

Learning from the evidence overview and the Knowledge Exchanges is now being written up. The report will focus on practical, low-cost steps that can be taken in two main areas – personal relationships and systems – in order to improve experiences and outcomes.

For more information or to share your experiences of working with other agencies please visit our interactive site, or contact Gerry on 01803 860097 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Facilitators

Keith Sinclair, Princess Royal Trust for Carers

Gerry Nosowska, research in practice for adults

The findings from Working Together will be presented at a national event on 15 September in Birmingham. We will share the main messages and will use workshops to explore how these findings can be disseminated more widely in ways that are truly accessible and have impact. At this event we will also launch our new evidence-informed guides for service users and carers to support you to manage expectations and to increase choice and control. This event is aimed at carers’ leads, champions and commissioners, with your third sector partners.