To receive and, if so determined, approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2017.

The Director of Integrated Services, Trafford Council & Pennine Care provided the Committee with a detailed overview of the 3 Conversations Model that the Council had adopted. The Director of Integrated Services explained that when the 2012 Care act came into force in 2015 Councils were enabled to explore more proportioned responses to people contacting adult social care. Previously people had to complete a full assessment when contacting the Council which was very time consuming and generated large amounts of paper work. When searching for an alternative approach Trafford found a company called Partners for Change who had developed the 3 conversations model. The model had received approval from the Government and Trafford commissioned the service in 2016. The 3 conversation model was more flexible than the previous model and required less paper work.

The first of the 3 conversations was “what has happened today” which gave social workers a chance to listen to the person and hear what they wanted. Most people only required this conversation with no further interventions. The second conversation was based around people within crisis. The aim of this conversation was to find out what was happening and to offer solutions to the issues at hand. This reduced the need to give a full assessment and take people into care. The council had approved having a corporate credit card to be used to purchase items that can help people deal with their crisis e.g. replacing broken washing machine. The Third conversation was for those who needed long term care and support, and required people to complete a full assessment.

In 2017 trials were run to compare this model against the previous service and found that it led to less people requiring long term care and an improvement in staff members moral. The model had created a more fluid approach which allowed social workers more control over the way that they worked. Trafford were in the process of spreading this approach across services and were looking at how to take the approach to a full scale delivery model which would include adjusting the front door, paper work, and processes.

The Chairman asked how implementation of the model would affect staffing, agency spend etc. The Director of Integrated Services responded there was a national shortage of social care workers and the 3 conversation model made Trafford a more attractive place to work. The model had been shown to make staff happier as they were more in control of their work and it was hoped that this would reduce the number of vacancies within Trafford and reduce levels of agency staff needed.

Committee Members asked a series of questions including; whether Trafford were maximising being a leader in deploying the model, the impact on retention of staff and carers, and whether the presentation would be of benefit for all Councillors to see. The Director of Integrated Services answered the Committees questions and offered to send case studies to Members outside of the meeting. In addition the Committee agreed that the presentation should be shown to all Councillors prior to a Council meeting.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

2)    That the update on the 3 conversations model be noted.

3)    That the Director of Integrated Services sends case studies about the model to Committee members.

4)    That the presentation be shown in a session prior to a full Council meeting.