Adult Social Care and Prevention Working Together Plan

Adult Social Care and Prevention want to get better at working with people who live in Newcastle and use our services. Together, we have planned how we will use more participation when we make and deliver services and strategies. 

This plan for working together will help when we are:

1. Working with individuals: When we work on a 1-to-1 basis with people on the care they access. For example, co-producing care plans.
2. Working to design services: Looking at the service level and how people are involved in delivering or designing services. For example, in recruitment, with groups of people in residential settings, and within specific teams.
3. Working to design strategy: Involving people who access services in making plans at a directorate level and monitoring and reviewing those plans. For example, working on the Local Account and Directorate Plan.

Have a look at the full version of our Working Together Plan here and the Plan on a Page version here. 

We also have an Easy Read version of the Plan that you can read here.

What does participation mean?

Participation is when we work with people who access our services. There are different types of participation. These are:

Our ultimate goal is to have as much of our work as possible to be co-produced. Co-production is an equal relationship between people accessing support and the people delivering services. They work together, from design to delivery. Decision-making about policies, and decisions about the best way to deliver services is fully shared. [Adapted from Think Local, Act Personal]

Co-design is when people who access services are involved in designing those services. They have genuine influence but are not involved in ‘seeing it through’. [Adapted from Think Local, Act Personal]

Engagement is when we work together with groups of people to tackle issues affecting services they access or areas they live in. As part of this, we build relationships between the Council and our local communities to support community action.

Consultation is giving people a say in decisions that affect them before we change how we deliver services. 

And informing is when people who deliver services tell people who access them about the services and explain how they work. [Adapted from Think Local, Act Personal]

What will Adult Social Care & Prevention be doing to work better together?

The people who helped shape the Working Together Plan, helped find nine key areas we need to continue getting better at to embed participation in the directorate.

We said we need to be more creative with the way we use resources. We will do this by…

… embedding more engagement, co-design and co-production activities into our commissioning cycles, with the aim of sharing more power with providers and with people who access services.

… making sure that when we create / review specifications for services, we involve people who access services from the start, rather than showing them a nearly finished document and consulting on it. 

… continuing to involve people who access services in monitoring the work of the providers we commission and how well contracts are working.

We said we need to make sure we involve seldom heard voices. We will do this by…

… working with our Community Wellbeing Project Officers to continue to reach out and make connections in neighbourhoods with people who don't usually engage with the Council, and to support more collaborative working between partners and communities.

We said we need to improve our connectivity and cross-organisational working. We will do this by…

… supporting a corporate-wide improvement to the communications systems, not just focusing on digital communications. 

… making sure we are representing Newcastle at regional meetings relating to our approach to participation and lived experience.

We said we need to improve participation training for staff and in recruitment. We will do this by…

… offering a training toolkit for staff and encouraging staff to take relevant participation training to their roles.

… ensuring that people with lived experience are included during the recruitment process

… either investigating employing a new post or adapting an existing post to include acting as a Voice and Influence Lead.

We said we need to make sure we are working accessibly. We will do this by…

… offering key documents including the Local Account and the Directorate Plan in easy read going forwards without request

… sending out information about what attendees can expect from events we hold and information about the venue ahead of time so people can prepare.    

We said we need to make sure we are being accountable in our actions and outcomes. We will do this by…

… pooling knowledge from previous participation exercises so colleagues can learn from information collected that already exists (if still valid and in date).

… reviewing our progress on the Working Together Plan internally every six months and refresh the Plan every 12-24 months alongside people who access our services.

We said we need to work to share power and control. We will do this by…

… widely advertising direct payment, so people can feel more control over their care, if appropriate and wanted by the individual.

… co-design or co-produce documents such as our Local Account with people who access our services.

We said we need to get better at recognising and celebrating lived experience. We will do this by…

… creating a payments policy for people who engage in co-production and substantial co-design. 

… continuing to transition from describing people as ‘service-users’ to ‘people who access services'.

We said we need to get better at communicating clearly. We will do this by…

… advertising participation opportunities through InformationNOW.org.uk and the Council's website and social media channels.

… developing an effective Front Door service.

How can you get involved?

Here are some ways people who access our services or interact with Adult Social Care and Prevention can work with us to help shape our services.

For online information, guidance and events going on in Newcastle, you can visit informationnow.org.uk. We will also be advertising participation opportunities through this website and through the InformationNOW's social media channels and newsletter, which you can sign up to here. 

We use our website Let’s Talk Newcastle to highlight consultations that people can get involved with. You can head to letstalknewcastle.co.uk to look at current and past consultations held in the city. You can filter Social Care and Support consultations specifically. 

If you volunteer or work for an organisation in Newcastle, getting involved with Neighbourhood Networks is a great way to learn more about what is going on in your area. Contact newcastleneighbourhoods@newcastle.gov.uk to get added to their mailing list. 

There are many organisations that work with the Council to express the voices of people living in the city. These include:

• Skills for People, for people who learning disabilities and/or autism and their families.
• Healthwatch Newcastle, who express the views of people who access health and social care services.
• The Elders’ Council for people who are over the age of 50.
• Newcastle Carers which is an organisation which provides support to carers and allows them to be heard. 

And many more! For more information on groups in Newcastle, have a look at informationnow.org.uk/organisations.

As we start to do more engagement, co-design, and co-production work, we will also share opportunities to get involved directly with people who access our services. 

How did we make the Working Together Plan?

We got feedback that we need to work with people who access our services more. We knew we needed to design our Plan to work better together alongside people who access our services, as well as carers, colleagues in Adult Social Care and across our partner organisations.

We planned and held co-design sessions with people across Newcastle in January 2024. We also sent out print and online activity packs to get as many people involved as possible. 

We then compiled everyone's thoughts and ideas into a draft Working Together Plan. We shared this through our consultation website Let's Talk and asked people what they thought. What needed to change? What did they like?

Based on all this feedback, we made important edits to the Plan. We are now sharing the first version of the Plan - but this is just the start!

We will refresh the Plan in the future and check that we are following through with the steps we have said we need to take.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped to shape the Plan: Alistair C, Andrea, Andrea M, Angie S, Annette W, Betty, Billy R, Bob S, Chatty, Clare L, Daryll A, Dorothea, El B, Emily Y, Emma B, Geof E, Jacqui M, Jay C, Jennifer T, Jola B, Jon T, Julia M, Julie I, June M, Karen I, Kerry P, Kristy N, Laura C, Louise M, Louise T, L Smith, Maria F, Mariana O, Matthew, Michael F, Michael W, Nadeem A, Neil Q, Pauline A, Pauline S, Peter M, Rachel E, Richard W, Sally H, Sandra R, Sarah D, Sarah L, Simon L, Stacey C, Stewart C, Tapiwa S, Tara F, Vicki E, Vicki S, Vivienne, Wayne, Zabean A and others who wished to remain anonymous.