Having trouble viewing this e-mail? View it in your web-browser.
Manage your e-mail subscription online, or remove yourself from our mailing list.
 |
CCPS Update |
| 18 December 2009 | Manage your e-mail subscription |
|
Dear Davina Adamson
Welcome to the new CCPS Update e-newsletter for December 2009. We hope that it will keep you up-to-date and informed about the key issues facing providers of care and support services in Scotland's voluntary sector. We're sending it to you because you have previously expressed an interest in our work: we hope you will want to continue to receive it, but if not, you can use the links at the top of this message if you prefer to 'unsubscribe'. To manage your subscription online, you can go to the following link at www.ccpscotland.org/publications Alternatively, please follow this links at the top of this message. In this email:
|
|
Service re-tendering: Draft guidance welcome, but concerns growing
Long-awaited draft guidance for local authorities on social care procurement and re-tendering is due to be issued for consultation in January 2010.
The Scottish Government Joint Improvement Team and the Scottish Procurement Directorate have been working since the summer to produce the guidance, in response to concerns raised both by CCPS and by service user groups about the potentially damaging impact of service re-tendering on service continuity, on the social care workforce and on local 'markets' for care. Local authorities have also been calling for clearer guidance on procurement regulations, which many have interpreted as leaving them with no choice but to put services back on the market once existing provider contracts have expired. More information about the guidance can be found on the Joint Improvement Team website. CCPS has been leading the debate nationally on re-tendering. We have produced a series of reports documenting providers' experiences and setting out a case for a different approach: more information can be viewed on our website. We have recently produced a series of briefings for elected members in the City of Edinburgh Council, where the current tender for adult support services has given rise to very significant concerns and unprecedented public protest: you can read the briefings and find out more from CCPS's own website. Single outcome agreements: another mixed bag for social care services
Social care services, particularly for people with physical and learning disabilities, still do not feature as a key priority in the majority of Single Outcome Agreements for 2009-10.
CCPS has produced an analysis of all 32 SOAs for the second year running, and has once again found that coverage of social care and support is patchy, with 13 of the documents failing even to mention learning disability. Even in areas where learning disability features, it is not clear what the implications are for services: for example, one SOA explained in considerable detail the results of survey of people with learning disabilities in the area, including information on how they would like services to look, but then gave no indication as to whether or how this information might be acted on. By contrast, most SOAs contain more detailed information about outcomes, priorities, services and plans in respect of children and young people, older people, people with mental health problems and people with problematic alcohol or drug use. One of the key points of the CCPS report is the fact that several voluntary organisations have spent considerable time and effort monitoring, comparing and analysing the content of SOAs, at least partly because nobody else has – including government. The report notes that civil servants and MSPs very much value these analyses, but that questions should perhaps be asked as to whether this is an appropriate role for the voluntary sector. The CCPS report, and more information about SOAs and the ‘new localism’ agenda, is available on the CCPS website. New scrutiny body must make the link between service quality and commissioning
The new scrutiny body for social work and social care proposed in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill must be able to take a ‘whole systems’ approach to quality, including the ability to make connections between the quality of a service, the quality of the commissioning process and the quality of the contract under which the service operates.
This was the key message of CCPS’s evidence to two parliamentary committees during Stage 1 of the legislation which will set up SCSWIS – Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland, to be formed by bringing together the existing functions of the Care Commission and the Social Work Inspection Agency, in addition to the child protection functions of HMIE. Both committees have picked up this point in their own Stage 1 reports. CCPS was also keen to emphasise the need for local authorities to take account of inspection reports, and in particular service quality gradings, when making procurement decisions. It is CCPS’s understanding that the government is now exploring an amendment to the legislation to this effect. CCPS’s written evidence is available on the CCPS website, along with a range of other information about care services regulation. Optimism levels – and reserves – plunge for care providers
Almost two-thirds of voluntary sector service providers are less optimistic about the general business situation in the sector than they were three months ago, according to the results of a survey of providers based on the CBI ‘business optimism’ model.
The survey, designed and conducted by CCPS with the assistance of the CBI, also revealed that 50% of providers expect their level of organisational reserves to drop by the year end, whilst almost a third have seen an increase in the number of services operating at a deficit. The survey will be repeated at regular intervals during 2010-11: meanwhile the key findings can be viewed on the CCPS website within the Publications pages. Community Care Providers Scotland (CCPS) is the association of voluntary sector organisations providing care and support services in Scottish communities. Its membership comprises all of the leading national non-profit and charitable providers in Scotland. For more information about CCPS and the work that it does, please follow this link to the CCPS website – www.ccpscotland.org
|
|
| Community Care Providers Scotland, 9 Ellersly Rd, Edinburgh. EH12 6HY T 0131 337 3295 F 0131 347 1756 E info@ccpscotland.org www.ccpscotland.org CCPS is a Company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 279913, registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator as Charity No. SCO29199 |
|