Services To Older People
Walking Together With the People Of Scotland
Adult Care Services
Children and Family Services
General Assembly 2016 Convener’s Speech
Report To the General Assembly Dr Sally E Bonnar - Convener 23 May 2016
Moderator, I have great pleasure in presenting the report and supplementary report for the Social Care Council which can be found in Section 7 of the Blue Book and in the additional papers. There are many references in the New Testament to Jesus walking with people. His disciples, the two on the road to Emmaus, the crowds in the Galilee. One of the things that a recent visit to Israel and Palestine brought home to me was what it must have been like to walk alongside Christ as he tramped the hills around the lake or walked up to the Mount of Olives. It was a very physical ministry and one which left space and time to fill. And what did he do while he was walking? Well I expect he did what we all do when walking with friends. He talked and listened; chatted and observed; learned and taught; he exchanged views. Jesus and His friends and followers were in all respects a People of the Way. As are we today, People of the Way walking alongside each other and with others. The report of the Social Care Council details our walk as People of the Way in Christ’s name and on behalf of the Church. It gives an insight into why we are walking this walk and with whom. It tells the story of our outcomes and our challenges and looks to the future of the Church’s social care mission. I hope it will inspire you to continue supporting this work and to think about ways in which your congregation can be involved in the mission of demonstrating the love and care of Christ to all in our nation, particularly those in need of help and support. The Social Care Council, trading as CrossReach, has achieved much this year. I hope that after reading the report, you will “go and tell” of the good things that are being done in the name of the church. We have a great deal to be thankful for.
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10 years ago, the Social Care Council adopted the trading name of CrossReach and over that time an identity has been developed with a reputation for quality, innovation and a commitment to involve people who use services in the work at all levels. The Scottish Social Services Council has commended many areas of our work and has been particularly interested in our development of Ambassadors. Our Dementia Ambassadors, established within Services to Older People, have now been extended into the field of learning disability and this model of support is now replicated in Personalisation Ambassadors. Specially trained members of staff are there to walk alongside people who use services as well as families, staff and carers to help them develop awareness and grow in knowledge. This is part of the developing agenda in social care to help people to become more responsible for making decisions about their own care, thereby improving their quality of life and enabling them to live as independently as possible. Walking with others can help to expand the care that can be offered and the report highlights several areas where this has been achieved in the past year. The partnership with Perth & Kinross and Angus Councils and Barnardos, the Scottish Prison Service, Enable and NHS Tayside in the THRIVE project has been particularly fruitful. Combining expertise, funding and organisational skills, we have together been able to support families with young children where a parent is in prison on remand or a short term sentence. Without support, 1 in 3 children with a parent in prison will develop physical or mental health problems. This equates to 9,000 children in Scotland who face a significant barrier to fulfilling their potential. CrossReach provides the Prison Visitor element of the THRIVE project which is crucial in tackling this serious problem. We are also helping families to maintain relationships, which is a key factor in preventing reoffending. Some of the stories in our report demonstrate what a few of the people who use our services have achieved individually as a result of the care that they have received. I hope that you will take time to read Claymore’s story and that of Deborah and Tracy. They make inspiring reading.
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As does the tale of the “tennis players of the Elms” If you don’t know what I am talking about, then see page 4 later. Our staff too have succeeded in achieving many personal goals. Margaret Cassidy’s tale of her progress from Housekeeping Assistant to Service Manager at South Beach House in Ardrossan is a testament to her own hard work and commitment and to the encouragement and support that she has received from her managers. I could stand here for many hours telling you good news stories but, as we all know, that is never the whole story and it is important to recognise the challenges that we face in delivering Social Care in our changing society. At a recent meeting, we had a presentation from a senior social work professional. He was clear that the pace of change and the amount of legislation that care organisations and local government are coping with at present is unprecedented. Self Directed Support, Health and Social Care Integration, the new revised Children Act and more, combined with cuts to funding, the implementation of the Living wage and the increasing demands of regulation create what some describe as a perfect storm for care organisations. I would stress that this is not shroud waving; it is reality. There are real challenges ahead if the church is going to continue to be a successful and well regarded provider of Social Care. The Assembly will be aware that for many years CrossReach has been struggling to achieve a break-even budget and we had hoped to be in a position to bring this to this year’s Assembly. Unfortunately, despite the generosity of the Council of Assembly in helping to deliver a consolidated pay rise to our staff this year, factors beyond our control mean that a break-even position has yet to be achieved, although this year we are closer than ever before. However, austerity cuts to public services and the significant annual repayment cost of meeting our Pensions deficit means that there is less money around. Add to that the increasing, though welcome, pressure of achieving the new Scottish living wage and it becomes increasingly difficult to see how this progress can be maintained. The message to the church and to others is clear - when money is scarce, we need to become more creative in how we use it. This means not only within the institution of CrossReach but also by looking at new models of care.
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Challenges also come in the shape of new approaches to commissioning and providing services which mean that we can no longer have the certainty of business continuing from one year to the next. Strategic planning becomes ever more complex but ever more necessary. To that end, we have established a Business Strategy Group, as outlined on page 12 of our report, to examine the situation and seek the best, sustainable way forward for Social Care in the Church. This may mean difficult choices but the work is urgent and the group will be taking short and medium term plans to the Social Care Council with any long term plan coming to next year’s General Assembly. With the challenges however, also come opportunities. The church is rich in social care provision at a local level and much can be done to build on this mission activity. Last year we spoke about the Social Care Council fulfilling a dual role, both to deliver National services under the CrossReach banner and also to resource the church to provide social care in localities. The General Assembly approved the appointment of a Social Care Mission Officer and, with part funding from the Council of Assembly’s flexible budget fund, this has been taken forward. Liann Weir – manager of CrossReach’s Daisy Chain Early Years Project - took up this seconded post in February of this year. Her initial work forms the content of our supplementary report and outlines exciting opportunities for the church locally to get involved in walking alongside people in their communities who are in need of Social Care, of whom we know there are many. It is clear from this that many congregations, responding to God’s call and moved by the spirit are already engaged in providing care in their communities. This movement towards local people working together to meet local needs in modest scale services fits very well with what is now accepted as good social care practice. Since the Community Care Act of 1990, provision of services has been moving away from large, centralised institutions towards local, individually tailored support. Health and Social care providers have been driving forward this agenda. Ongoing work to integrate health and social care and achieve personalised provision of services designed and led at a local level is just the most recent step in this direction. This affects the voluntary, or third sector, of which all of us in the church are a part. CrossReach is a leader in this process. Our Daisy Chain Early Years Project in the Govanhill area of Glasgow is a good example of a service established within a
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community, and working in partnership with local people to meet the needs that they themselves have identified. It behooves the Church to pay attention to shifts in public policy. And guess what? We are in an excellent position to take advantage of this direction of travel. We have something like 1200 branches across the country, each of which could be involved in helping to support needy and vulnerable people in local communities! That is a fantastic opportunity. Now I know that many of you are already doing this in your churches. Everything from transport rotas to lunch clubs, from toddler groups to counselling services and many more. Some of this has been outlined in our supplementary report. Two quick examples of local social care for you. The first is an established service operating in a local church centre. The Oasis at Bankfoot in Perthshire provides day care for 10 elderly residents in the community using local volunteers and professional management, working under the CrossReach umbrella of services. All they need is a comfortable room for actitivites and facilities for refreshments. The second is just an idea at this stage. A local minister in rural Argyll, in conversation with a local resident began to wonder what had happened to all the books stocked by the now-defunct mobile library which used to visit elderly and housebound people. Why could the church not take custody of these books and from the church hall deliver them, perhaps alongside people delivering meals on wheels to local residents? Thus starts social care in the community. Those of you who were at last year’s Assembly will have heard me speak about how CrossReach has engaged with 3 congregations in Arbroath, Edinburgh and Bo’ness in order to explore areas of mutual support. We are now seeking to partner with an additional 3 churches to support them to launch new social care initiatives. In addition, along with our existing partners we plan to establish peer support and learning hubs across the country. It is important that the social care work done by the church in Christ’s name is quality work undertaken within the appropriate legislative and governance framework. To that end, the Social Care Forum website, launched in 2015 is being developed to provide resources for churches to help ensure that all the care we provide is honouring to God. If you haven’t already visited the website go and have a look.
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Register your project and be amongst the first to take part in the conversation, walking with each other as we learn to walk alongside those we serve in Christ’s name. To further develop this work, it is intended that the Social Care Council will host a Conference in the autumn so that as many churches as wish to can be involved in discussion, sharing and partnering with each other in the mission of social care. All our communities are different and so the works that we engage in will be different. Just as different ministries are required in different places, so different care services will be required. But we can all learn from one another and from the national work that CrossReach has been doing for decades; and we can all support one another as we seek to walk alongside people in need - for surely we are all in need in some way. If you are enthused by this project and are interested in finding out more, then come along to our workshop at lunchtime tomorrow in the St. Augustine Centre on George IV Bridge and tell us about your work. Perhaps you will find a likeminded partner to share with and to provide mutual prayer support for. And thus we come full circle. As Christians we are people of the way, the way of Jesus, walking with him, conversing, learning, loving and being loved. Jesus walked with his followers and in that walking, they learned what it was to love God and to be loved by him. So here is a challenge to us all. As we have shared today some of the people that CrossReach has walked with through this year, who do we walk with? —- who COULD we walk with? ---- and who will YOU walk with, to ensure that the church continues to make your community – and therefore our society – a more loved and loving place? Moderator I present the report and supplementary report of the Social Care Council and as I not a commissioner, I invite the Principle Clerk to move the Deliverance.
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CrossReach Charis House 47 Milton Road East Edinburgh EH15 2SR
www.crossreach.org.uk
CR0153
t: 0131 657 2000 e: bdd@crossreach.org.uk