Living Better Lives 2022 – 2026

As the Lead Member for Independence and Wellbeing, I am proud to introduce you to our new draft 5-year vision for Adult Social Care in South Tyneside. South Tyneside is well known for its culturally diverse population and strong sense of community spirit and whilst the pandemic has thrown up some significant challenges, we have been inspired by the way local communities have united to support each other.

South Tyneside is a caring place and the crisis has seen a surge in our neighbourhoods and communities coming together to support each other, with many volunteers and businesses working together to help care for its residents. Our draft 5-year vision supports wider community action, building upon the social movement that was initially seen at the start of the pandemic.

People should be given the best opportunity possible to lead healthy and independent lives, but we will only achieve this by changing the way we work, focusing on outcomes; what people want to achieve, how they want to live and working with our neighbourhoods and communities differently. We want to bring together a diverse range of social enterprises and community groups, to help us tackle health and wellbeing issues via place-based partnership working; and see improved engagement, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard, whilst co-producing and co-delivering services.

With people, families and communities very much at the heart of what we do, we are committed to supporting our residents with the right level of support when they need it. As part of our approach to prevent, reduce and delay, we want to build upon people’s strengths and assets; to support their independence and enable them to live a better life; in the neighbourhoods and communities they call home.

Our previous Adult Social Care strategy saw a real focus on independence and wellbeing and whilst we have made progress in a number of areas, we are ambitious and want to do more, working with our communities and partners. We want to build upon what we have achieved, but also be able to respond to the new challenges that lie ahead, creating a brighter future together. When done well, social care can support people to live the life they want to lead.

The Covid-19 pandemic has really demonstrated the solidarity that already exists across our communities, from supporting with the delivery of food parcels and medication, to streets coming together to clap for carers and organise activities to support those that were isolated. Our Call to Action at the start of the pandemic provided new non-traditional recruitment routes for people who may not have previously considered a role in the care sector. In a borough changed by the pandemic, we want to use the learning from this and work with people who face challenges to entering employment and ensure we can create opportunities and a diverse skilled workforce that’s representative of our community.

Our new draft 5-year vision offers us a real opportunity to define the strategic direction for Adult Social Care, with our priorities being about people, place and partnerships. This strategy is about building upon our valued partnerships and ensuring we go wider to include the community, voluntary and faith sectors, housing, education, business sectors and wider corporate partners.

We remain fully committed to providing the right level of support to those that need it, when they need it. This includes unpaid carers. This could be through the provision of information and advice, preventative support during times of crisis or working intensively with people for much longer periods when required.

I am confident that by building upon what we have achieved to date, the resilience of our workforce, communities and partnerships that we will go from strength to strength in terms of our approach to Adult Social Care.

About South Tyneside

South Tyneside has a rich heritage and our history has played a major role in regional, national and even world history. It was a military strong hold for the Romans and an important centre for the early Christian church, where the Venerable Bede wrote his “Ecclesiastical History.” An area that was rich in coal with a key position on the River Tyne, it has a proud industrial and maritime past and was at the forefront of invention and innovation in these areas. The Jarrow Crusade of 1936 was a key event in the town’s proud history.

South Tyneside is also renowned for its friendly, vibrant communities, who have welcomed incomers for centuries, giving it a rich and diverse cultural heritage. Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, the early 20th century arrival of the Arabs and more recently the settling of people from the Commonwealth, notably the Indian sub-continent, and the European Union reflect the present-day culture of South Tyneside.

Covering an area of 64 sq.m and a population of 151,000 living in 72,000 households South Tyneside includes the towns of South Shields, Hebburn and Jarrow and the villages of Boldon, Cleadon and Whitburn and is an outstanding place to live, invest and bring up families, nonetheless we are facing growing demand and new challenges around how to support people to stay independent and improve their wellbeing. The index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 ranks South Tyneside as the 31st most deprived local authority areas in England (out of 317), however there is a lot of variation in the levels of deprivation and affluence across the borough. Our Director of Public Health Tom Hall uses hypothetical children Jack and Emily to demonstrate the differences the two children born on the same day, but from different parts of the borough, and what impact that had on their health and wellbeing, as they developed as children into adulthood. Jack was born in the ward of Simonside and Rekendyke and Emily in Cleadon and East Boldon Ward. Their journeys through life are quite shockingly different, culminating in jack expecting to live 75 years and Emily 87 years; a whole 12 years longer.

Our vision for the future

We want to see every person in South Tyneside with care and support needs “Living Better Lives.” To fully utilise their strengths and assets; to remain safe and well; in the neighbourhoods and communities they call home.

We want to work with all our partners to ensure the person only need tell their story once and that they have an equal voice in co-ordinating their care and support.

We understand promoting the importance of social justice and inclusion, respecting people’s rights, citizenship and participation.

We want to…

Our values and behaviours

Living better lives is our 5-year (2022-2026) vision and strategy to ensure that every person in South Tyneside with care and support needs are “Living Better Lives.” We believe that people shouldn’t have to accept 2nd best.

Rooted in our values - (Integrity) we will be open and transparent. (Valuing people) respect everyone and appreciate their diversity. (Excellence) strive for continuous improvement. (Compassion & respect) listen with humility and kindness. (Working together) work in partnership, enabling people to have real choice and ensure their voice is heard. (Improving lives) support people to be independent, safe, well and connected to their community.

We commit to adopting a one team collaborative approach, to equip our workforce to be Curious, Accountable Responsive and Empowered

Living Better Lives is built on 3 foundational priorities:

People – are at the centre of our focus, we will use the principles of ‘A Better U’ to ensure services and support is proactive, personalised and fair. We will actively promote independence, seeking to reduce and delay needs, recognising the importance of choice and control, equipping and empowering people to utilise their strengths and assets; only telling their story once and demonstrate that they have an equal voice in coordinating the right care to remain safe and well in the neighbourhoods and communities they call home.

Place – leveraging our proud innovative industrial and maritime heritage, our diverse neighbourhoods and communities support each other to make it an outstanding place to live, invest and bring up families. Our services, support and care will reflect this strong sense of community spirit, being set at home or as close to home as possible. Making the most of community assets and delivering support and services in a way that fits people’s needs more easily remaining safe and well in the neighbourhoods and communities they call home more of the time.

Partnerships – shifts the focus onto co-production, co-delivering, equipping and enabling people to have real choice and control over their care and support; seeing the person as an equal partner and expert in their own lives. Starting from the position of people’s assets our systems and processes will be adapted to help staff achieve this. We support our staff to spend more time building relationships with people by having a different type of conversation using our Let’s Talk Together approach which will connect people to communities and provide extensive support for people in times of crisis both short-term and long-term, working collaboratively to plan what living better will be like.

Those that count told us…“Being able to stay in control of our lives; being cared about, not for, and doing more of what matters to us.” - “Living in the place we call home, together with the people and things that we love.” - “Supporting us to be safe and well, through things like using new technologies or adapting our home.” - “Helping us to stay connected to the people around us and play an active part in our neighbourhoods and community.” - “Giving us our own budget to use on the support we choose”

This approach will enable us to

• Develop a place-based system of care, support by placing people, families and neighbourhoods at the very heart of our work to achieve the best outcomes.
• Promote health and wellbeing to address health inequalities.
• Support people to stay safe and well to support their safety, wellbeing and reduce risk.
• Promote Early Help through access to quality information and advice about health and wellbeing
• Support people to remain in control and achieve what is important to them.
• Delay and Reduce Need by supporting our people to remain fit and as active
• Work with our local communities to create caring and resilient neighbourhoods
• Promote fully inclusive employment opportunities for those who wish to work in adult social care and sustain a skilled workforce that are valued for the commitment they bring.
• Together we will ensure that every person in South Tyneside with care and support needs are “Living Better Lives.”

Adopting a one team collaborative approach, we want our workforce to demonstrate the following behaviours: Curiosity, Accountable, Responsive and Empowered

Good Social Care is…

Good social care is about all these things and it benefits us all.

Through the development of our new 5-year vision we will focus on people, place and partnerships, promoting the health and wellbeing of those with care and support needs and informal carers, recognising the principles of A Better U by ensuring our approach to services and support are proactive, personalised and fair. We will actively promote independence, seeking to reduce and delay needs where possible, recognising the importance of choice and control in planning support and enabling people to live better lives in their local communities.

Our practitioners will work in a way that focuses on people’s strengths and assets and our systems and processes will be adapted to help staff achieve this. We will support our staff to spend more time building upon relationships with people, by having a different type of conversation, focusing on enabling them to achieve their goals and what is important to them.

When we work with people, we will use an approach called Let’s Talk Together. Our Let’s Talk Together approach will see us connecting people to communities, working intensively with people in times of crisis, never making long term decisions during these periods and for those who do need long term support, working together to plan what a good life looks like. We will focus on aspirations, strengths and networks to build a robust and resilient plan which recognises the importance of a place to call home, employment and education, relationships and communities, health and well-being.

As we move forward together, we will start to see a real shift of focus onto co-production, co-delivering and enabling people to have real choice and control over their care and support; seeing the person as an equal partner.

Strengths and asset-based approaches in social care focus on what individuals and communities have and how they can work together. Rather than on what individuals don’t have or can’t do. When we talk about Personal Strengths and Assets, these relate to relationships, experience, skills and aspirations and when we talk about Community Strengths and Assets, these relate to knowledge, people, spaces, networks, services.

Wider determinants of health, also known as social determinants, are a diverse range of factors which impact on people’s physical and mental health. When we use the term, we are referring to the social, cultural, political, economic, commercial and environmental factors that shape the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

Co-production The term co-production refers to a way of working, whereby everybody works together on an equal basis to create a service or come to a decision which works for everyone. It is also when you as an individual influence the support and services you receive, or when groups of people get together to influence the way that services are designed, commissioned and delivered'.