This week’s blog is about by making small, immediate changes to systems in order to start a larger process of redesign.
Following January’s outcomes event in West Lothian, I caught up with one care home in the area to discuss how outcomes have become part of practice in the home.
Wilma, registered manager at Peacock Care Home, has been attending many national and local events that have been stressing the importance of outcomes – but she wasn’t sure how that fit into her current model of support provision.
Wilma believes that the key to delivering outcomes isn’t about paperwork- but about staff attitudes and taking the ‘fear’ out of outcomes.
Wilma’s solution: Adding the simple question “what matters to you?” to her current assessment form/person centred care plan
This question gives space for a discussion, which can inform the rest of the information that is gathered about a resident’s support needs. It also gives staff permission to have this discussion as a part of the process of getting to know somebody.
A small change that is the start of a much larger journey. Implementing it quickly and in a small scale in existing systems gives staff the opportunity to test and feedback on the question – shaping how to progress next.
This incremental approach, as detailed in IRISS intern Jodie Pennachia’s recent report Exploring the relationships between evidence and innovation in the context of Scotland’s social services in which she details the value of “incremental or additive innovation”. This approach could be seen as more practical for the sector, particularly as it does not “disrupt and transform practice” but rather “sustain[s] and add[s] to what is already there (Van De Ven, 1986; Leadbeater, 2010; Mulgan, 2013).”
It’s great to see people taking action based on learning, and taking initiatives within a residential setting. The question is: can incremental innovation get residential support where it needs to be for the future? or at some point will a more radical approach be needed?
- By: Richard Rutter