Community Connectors
As part of a new approach being piloted through the Community Solutions Programme called the Improving Lives Initiative (ILI), a team of around 10 Community Connectors are being employed through North Lanarkshire Disability Forum with funding from the Community Solutions Programme.
The Community Connectors will signpost people to community supports provided by Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS) organisations and, where appropriate, support access to statutory services such as Home Assessment Teams and Integrated Rehabilitation Teams. Referals to the Community Connectors can be made through the North Lanarkshire Disability Forum Website
The Community Connectors will work closely with staff from Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire (HSCNL), Community Solutions Locality Hosts and Consortia members, along with staff and volunteers from local CVS organisations to do the following:
Map CVS support and services in each locality and across North Lanarkshire.
Encourage CVS organisations to upload, up to date information on their services on to the Scottish national online database – ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland), which can be accessed by anyone.
As part of the Macmillan Improving Cancer Journey (ICJ) Programme, take referrals from the ICJ Central administration hub and proactively identify the needs of people affected by cancer using the Macmillan Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) tool to ensure people get the right support to meet their non-clinical needs.
Support local residents experiencing other health or related problems in crisis using the "Three conversations" approach to aid and signpost (social prescribing) to local CVS support and/or referral to formal services if required.
Record support provided to people on the Engage, Promote and Involve (EPI) recipient database for analysis and reporting.
Facilitate structured meetings of HSC-NL Multi-Disciplinary Teams including GP Community Link Workers, the Lanarkshire Prescribing Management Team, the Integrated Rehabilitation Team, the Home Assessment Team and other related key/support workers in the community such as the Community Liaison Team, Carer Support staff, etc.
To provide continuity and spread across all Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire six localities, the Community Connectors will be co-located and link closely with the six Community Solutions Locality Hosts and will deployed to the following specific localities:
The locality-based Community Connectors aligned to specific localities will provide support through Conversation 1 and Conversation 2 of the "Three Conversations" Model (for more information on the "Three Conversations" model please click here). Conversation 2 will require the Community Connectors to work closely with statutory partners to get a rapid response for people in crisis.
The remaining two Community Connectors will be deployed to provide additional cover (one for each HSC-NL Sector) and more specialist support as part of Conversation 3, of the "Three Conversations" Model, for clients requiring ongoing statutory support to “build a good life”. This is likely to work closely with statutory partners to agree a structured care plan to achieve personal outcomes for the person.
‘The Three Conversations’ Model Summary (Partners for Change)
The Three Conversations model is a paradigm shift in how to deliver adult social care, and how it collaborates with NHS, Housing, Voluntary Sector and other colleagues to make the whole joined up system of community-based support work differently and better.
It seeks to replace the ‘contact, reablement, then assessment for services’ culture with a new approach based on the assets, strengths and capabilities of people, families and communities.
It is built on, and has proved, the assumption that if you collaborate with and allow people to be co-designers of their support – then their outcomes go up, and their use of health and social care resources goes down.
Conversation 1: Listen and connect
Conversation 2: Work intensively with people in crisis
Conversation 3: Build a good life
There are very precise rules associated with these conversations that are necessary in order to produce a very adifferent culture, practice and behaviour in comparison with the default system. These include – you have to exhaust conversations 1 and 2 before you are allowed to move to conversation 3, you are not allowed, ever, to plan long term with people in crises, you are never allowed to hand off or refer people, or triage them, or use a waiting list or allocation process. If someone is in crisis you ‘stick to them like glue’ and work with them on what needs to change intensively for a short period of time.