Season Greetings from all the team

Video briefing by Jonathan Morgan

Seminar Date - September 21st
Time - 9.30am - 12.30 am
Place - Ty Antur, Navigation Park, Abercynon
For more information, please contact beth@practicesolutions-ltd.co.uk

Jonathan Morgan joins the team

Jonathan served as one of the original Assembly Members from 1999 until May 2011 and built up a strong working relationship across the public, private and third sectors. During his 12 years at Cardiff Bay, he worked with a number of health, social care and charitable organisations to assist them in their work, in promoting and advising their development in relation to government policy and legislation. He is passionate about ensuring that organisations have the right tools and knowledge to effectively influence political development and legislation, arguing that the business of government is everyone's business where legislation can be greatly improved by civic involvement.

Jonathan served on the health committee from 2003 & took the Chair of the Health, Well-Being & Local Government Committee (2007 - 2009 & 2010 - 2011). As Chair of the Health Committee he gained a reputation for fairness and impartiality, guiding the committee through controversial and sensitive policy reviews. In 2006 he became the ITV Wales Assembly Member of the Year when his work in health policy was praised as "substantive, well thought-out and overwhelmingly constructive".

During the third Assembly term Jonathan became the first non Government AM to take through a Legislative Competence Order to devolve powers from the UK Parliament to the National Assembly, in the field of Mental Health. This, a first for a member of the opposition, saw Jonathan pursuading both the National Assembly and the UK Parliament to agree that Wales should be able to pass laws in relation to Mental Health. Towards the end of the term, the Assembly legislated in this policy area and passed the 2010 Mental Health Measure, which will be implemented over the next couple of years.

July 20th 2011 - Let’s get Flipping!

One day practical workshop @ Navigation Park, Abercynon

This practical workshop aims to explore why and how Flip video cameras might be used by social care providers as an accessible tool for person centred planning and social engagement. It will be productive, practical and highly interactive.

The workshop is suitable for social care professionals looking to implement the use of digital video into their organisation. Previous experience of using flip cameras is not essential.

Sarah Day will work with participants to begin to explore the skills and knowledge required when using the Flip camera to support service users. For further information about the facilitator, please visit our website at www.practicesolutions-ltd.co.uk/about-us.

The Programme
9.30: Coffee and Introductions

9.45:Why digital video?
How can it be used positively within the context of social care and person centred planning?

10.45: Break

11.00: Practical exercise -The Flip camera and it’s benefits

11.20: Practical exercise – Let’s get flipping

12.45: Lunch

13.30: Practical exercise -The flip editing session – how to make an effective use of the tool and it’s embedded software

15.00 Group presentation - Flip Share

15.40 Break

16.00: Group discussion – Flip and social engagement

How might the flip video tool be used to support individuals accessing social care services?

Future planning – the practicalities of flipping

16.30: Close

The fees for this workshop is as follows:
For Voluntary sector organisations - £ 75+ vat
For Private sector organisations - £ 95 + vat

Equipment will be provided, however if you already have your own flip cameras, it would be a good idea to bring them along. Lunch and refreshments is included.

The workshop will take place at Practice Solutions, Ty Antur, Navigation Park, Abercynon.
For further information, or to book a place, please contact beth@practicesolutions-ltd.co.uk. You can also call her on 01443 742384. Places are limited, so early booking is recommended.

Tina Donovan joins the team

Tina has worked in the health and social care sector for over 37 years, initially training in childcare and learning disabilities as a nurse, working in the NHS in Leicester, Gwent and South Glamorgan as well as working with children with complex learning disabilities and challenging behaviours in Jersey for a period of time.

She has worked in both the Private and Public Sector in Wales commissioning and as a Service Provider ranging from Secure Service Provision through to Supported Accommodation following having an instrumental role in managing the closure of Ely Hospital in Cardiff. Tina has recently retired from running her own Company for the last 7 years in providing support and accommodation for young adults on the Autistic Spectrum and Asperger’s Syndrome.

She has a wealth of experience in the development of services, service provision, and training within the field as well as strong links with other colleagues and professionals. The main underlying principle in her work is that Tina strongly believes it is essential to have a very sound values base and a passion in the way people with learning disabilities, mental health, and any vulnerable adults are treated within our society, and that individuals should be empowered and supported to reach their own aspirations in their lives.

Free Events for the third sector and private providers in south Wales

On March 8th and 9th we will be hosting free seminars at our training facility in Navigation Park, Abercynon for third sector and private sector providers to explore how, through these challenging economic times, to deliver more effective results using ‘Results Based Accountability (RBA.

RBA is increasingly being used to deliver better outcomes for vulnerable people in communities across the UK.

Our Associate, Val Connors, who will be leading the sessions, has a wide range of experience of working in Social Services across Wales and has used RBA extensively as an approach to improve outcomes in public services. She firmly believes that RBA offers many benefits for organisations who want to deliver beneficial outcomes for their customers.

The aim of the sessions will be to:
• Provide a brief overview of RBA and share experience of its’ use
• Explore the benefits of integrating the RBA approach into business planning processes
• Identify the challenges of linking RBA to commissioning and service provision

The 3rd Sector event will take place on March 8th (2pm -4.30pm) with the private provider event taking place on th 9th March (2pm - 4.40pm).

These events are free and spaces are limited, so to book your place, please call Beth on 01443 742384 or email her at beth@practicesolutions-ltd.co.uk by Tuesday 1st March 2011.

Results Based Analysis (RBA) & Business Planning

Results Based Analysis (RBA) is a powerful organisational tool which can provide data to monitor progress and evaluate why services, programmes and interventions are succeeding or failing.

RBA provides a basis for answering the questions:

• What are we trying to achieve, and why?
• How are we progressing?
• Have the desired results been achieved?

Evaluation using an RBA approach , in practice, can help to answer different, but equally important questions:

• What are the results we want to achieve?
• Why were results achieved or not?
• What is the connection between intervention and outcome?
• Do we need to repeat or discard anything we do?
• Have there been any unintended consequences?
• How do we need to change?

Val Connors, our associate consultant, recently ran a seminar on how RBA maybe used effectively to enhance business planning and the development of the ACRF within Wales. Here are some reflective notes based on the discussions held.

Perceived benefits of RBA

• Increases opportunities for engagement of ‘customers’ and other stakeholders in a shared vision and how to achieve it
• Increases ownership of outcomes and means
• Supports creativity and ensures interventions are relevant and timely
• Provides a gateway to move from a reactive to a proactive culture
• Provides increased opportunity to explore how joint intervention can be integrated to achieve shared outcomes
• Improves ‘customer’ focus by examining success and failure through collection and analysis of ‘customer' experiences
• Supports more accurate commissioning of internal/external services
• Improved performance management, better use of resources
• Provides a continuing opportunity to demonstrate results and build public confidence
• Can cut across departmental , corporate and collaborative joint‐planning processes
• Supports political scrutiny and organisational governance

Challenges

• The focus of RBA must be on outcomes and improvement
• Careful choice of performance measures is critical
• Data should be chosen to illuminate difficult issues, rather than to show the organisation in the most favorable light
• If RBA is to become more than a ‘flavour of the month' concept, personnel must see a direct link between what they do and the data they collect
• Implementing, organisation wide RBA, needs a longer‐term strategy with a shared language
• Collaboration and trust will be needed, if RBA is to deliver required results, particularly in
  relation to population accountability
• Welsh Assembly Government PIs do not fit well with an RBA approach and will need to be
  adjusted
• In return for measurable results, agencies, with commissioning and contracting
  responsibilities, will need to delegate authority and resources

Implementing & RBA will require additional capacity to:

• Develop a shared language
• Engage customers and stakeholders
• Set clear outcomes
• Agree shared indicators and measures of success
• Collect and use data beneficially

The current financial climate is challenging. Sharing costs in a collaborative venture, across
geographical and agency boundaries, offers a possible solution to the issue of capacity.

Gabe Conlon
Practice Solutions
17.1.2011

How Practice Solutions benefit from Cloud computing

In the early part of 2010, to manage our expanding team of associates, we identified a need to develop our existing IT setup. We were aware of the concept of cloud computing and sought the advice of M2i Communications to provide us with a hosted IT solution that would meet our business needs. The whole process took less than two weeks to complete. M2i set up the system, imported our email archives and showed us how to get the most out of the new services. They also upgraded our existing mobile phone set up, and we now have smart phones that are synchronised and configured with our email and calenders. Nearly a year on, we feel our organisation has really benefited from using M2i, they understand our business and provide us with a reliable infrastructure that contributes to our continued success. Furthermore we have saved several thousands of pounds in set up costs for a traditional email and data storage server, and a further one thousand pounds per year with ongoing maintenance contracts.

The hosted technology we now use gives us email, diary and contact management for everyone within the business, making a real difference from from using individual email accounts and diaries that aren't connected. It works with Microsoft Outlook, via a web browser and our smart phones. This is vital as it means our staff and associates can connect from any device, anywhere at any time. We continue to operate whatever the weather!

The SharePoint solution, which gives us access via a web browser to the latest versions of working documents has also really improved our time management processes, because we can always find what we need. There's a lot less time spent emailing others trying to find documents.

Everything is hosted in secure data centres which can be accessed over the Internet. We are billed on a monthly basis and are charged per user. M2i manages our account so we can easily add new users as we develop and grow however, we only pay for what we use. Besides saving money, using hosted services also reduces a lot of risk for us, as the M2i solutions provides back up, continuity of service, hardware and software maintenance, upgrades and disaster recovery. All Practice Solutions staff and our associates need to work effectively is a laptop, or smart phone, with a connection to the Internet.