Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership
Julia Donaldson shares her experience working in partnership with Carer Voices as Assessment Service Manager at Glasgow City HSCP.
The Carer Voices project has worked with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to deliver improvement sessions to home care staff which aim to empower them in their roles and promote compassionate care. Running since March 2019 and ongoing, the sessions have been delivered 40 times to 1000 staff members as we continue this partnership work over 2020 and beyond.
Staff attending the tailored sessions span home carers, coordinators, managers, assessors, call handlers, technicians and drivers. They are educated on the principles of intelligent kindness and informed of the wider work that has been undertaken at the ALLIANCE.
What did you do?
Staff attending the talks were asked to make a pledge, describing how they would lead change with feedback gathered at the end of each session. Some of the pledges included listening to people more, not interrupting people too quickly, being more attentive and understanding and showing kindness and respect.
In order to promote values-based reflective practice, Glasgow City HSCP now displays these pledges on a ‘What Matters to You?’ tree at their offices to encourage staff to reflect on the difference they can make in their roles.
What worked well and why?
More time, training, engagement and staff support were highlighted as key to turning good intentions into actions. Feedback from the sessions was incredibly positive. Of 271 staff surveyed, 91% of said the sessions were very good and a majority said they were informative, helpful and well presented. In addition, 84% strongly agreed that the improvement session would have a positive impact on their work.
We were really delighted to jointly work on this project and felt this was a great opportunity to embed the national health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly 3 and 8 which talk about positive experiences in care for service users and an engaged workforce that is continuously supported to improve the care they provide.
What difference did it make to the people you engage with?
The sessions impact positively on home carers who provide support and services to thousands of people across the city of Glasgow. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time for everyone who was involved with really rich feedback that has been captured and will inform our improvement journey moving forward.
Read more Integration Stories in the ALLIANCE publication ‘Integration in Action’ which outlines seven additional case studies on progressive partnerships.