I have just returned from Australia, where I was able to learn and share my experiences at Dimensions with many other social care providers. Currently, the Australian social care sector is being overhauled – something described to me as being “as seismic as the creation of the NHS in the UK” – so it is fair to say that I was visiting at a pertinent time to learn how other countries adapt to change.
Essentially, this will see decisions about funding move from being made locally, within states and territories, to a newly created federal agency. What I saw was a really collaborative approach between families, providers and commissioners to those changes – collaboration that also includes cross-party political support. As a change that will take years to implement, it needs this level of support to ensure its success and longevity. While a strong government lead is vital in terms of ensuring the sector is fit for purpose, there should be a clear focus elsewhere so that, despite changes at parliamentary level, commissioners, providers and the sector as a whole have well-defined targets.
Executives are constantly learning from one another across Australia, as well as from their counterparts in other countries. Sharing experiences and best practice has led to an open dialogue that both supports people and leads to a sector that can develop consistently across the country. Seeing this made me realise that in the UK care sector we are often too inward-thinking. That said, over here we do have a more open market and less central prescription, which means that more choice and control is available to us – if we can make the most of it.
There is no shying away from the fact that Australia is a more financially stable environment than the UK. The five providers we visited were at various stages of improving personalisation. When we met them, they all had the same ethos around involving the people they support in decision making.
Regulators, health and safety and other procedures are at the heart of everything that operates in the social care sector, and rightly so; they exist to ensure that people are supported, staff are safe and best practice really is at the heart of services. Interestingly, however, the emphasis upon these elements seemed more balanced in Australia, and their impact on daily life felt different. We need to bear in mind that someone who is being supported should be free to lead a life of their own choosing and not be surrounded by procedures and files. They should always come first.
Australians have great practices in place that help them involve all their staff in an organisation, despite the fact that many are working in remote services. In the UK we do not have such a vast expanse of land to negotiate – there is no reason why people being supported should be living far away from their community and there are plenty of ways to engage a large workforce across the country. Without motivated, well trained and valued staff, Dimensions would not be able to operate and I intend to make sure that we continually help ours learn and develop.
Some services we visited were strongly focused on supporting people with learning disabilities to work. They included a saw mill, factories and a worm farm. Interestingly people’s wages were determined by their productivity and this was clearly a motivating factor for many of the people we met. It was refreshing to learn that people’s earnings don’t have anywhere near the same detrimental impact upon entitlements and benefits as they do in the UK.
Looking in on Australian approaches to rehabilitation affirmed my belief that supporting people into “everyday” jobs in the community is the best way to truly empower them. Dimensions does this very successfully through its supported employment team and we are committed to this approach, but it was thought provoking to see a different model.
It is fair to say that in the UK austerity cuts have put significant external pressures on providers, commissioners and all involved in the social care sector over the past few years. Our Australian counterparts were amazed at how we have responded and coped with this, while remaining focused on the people at the centre of the support.
Yes, there have been significant challenges and also atrocious examples of poor support, like the Winterbourne View abuse. We need to overcome these, despite changes to the circumstances we work in. My trip showed me that by working through such issues together, significant and amazing outcomes can be achieved for people with learning disabilities and autism. After all, that is what makes the work we do enjoyable: we support vulnerable people to have better lives and achieve positive outcomes.
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