Our values

Adults with care and support needs, regardless of their background, are at the heart of everything we do and it is our main priority to ensure they can thrive and meet their full potential. Our vision is informed by the adult social care business plan and the overarching council Thrive Agenda.

Community Led Support

Our approach to how we deliver care and support across Adult Social Care is changing in Gateshead.

The Council, NHS and Voluntary Sector partners are changing the way we will support communities across Gateshead by partnering with the National Development Team for inclusion (NDTi) network as part of a three-year change programme to introduce Community Led Support.

Community Led Support (CLS) is an approach to achieving change based on a set of principles for how support and care should be delivered and experienced.

• Coproduction brings people and organisations together around a shared vision.
• There is a focus on 'place', on 'community' and on the 'whole' person.
• People can get support and advice easily,  when they need it so that crises are avoided.
• The culture is based on trust, empowerment, and shared values within and across teams and organisations.
• Support is strengths based, building independence, control, and community connections.
• Bureaucracy is the absolute minimum it has to be.
• The system is responsive, proportionate and focused on outcomes.

These principles will be implemented in ways that are determined by staff working in services, local partners, and members of the community they are serving.

Keeping adults safe and giving them a voice

Our job in adult social care is to make sure we protect individuals from harm and promote their wellbeing. We must have the basics in place to ensure adults feel as safe and secure as possible. 

Our social work values

Our social work values are aligned with Social Work England professional standards. These standards are imperative for safe and effective practice:

• promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities
• establish and maintain the trust and confidence of people
• be accountable for the quality of my practice and the decisions I make
• maintain my continuing professional development
• act safely, respectfully and with professional integrity
• promote ethical practice and report concerns

All of our direct care services follow the Care Quality Commission Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) principles:

• Safe - people are protected from abuse and avoidable harm
• Effective - people's care, treatment and support achieves good outcomes, promotes a good quality of life and is based on the best available evidence
• Caring - the service involves and treats people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect
• Responsive - services meet people's needs
• Well-led - the leadership, management and governance of the organisation assures the delivery of high-quality and person-centred care, supports learning and innovation, and promotes an open and fair culture

Well led leadership

In Gateshead, effective management and team leadership are essential to the delivery of high quality care. Being an excellent leader and manager in social care is a challenging role and to provide high quality care, leaders and managers are needed at every level. This is a multi-faceted role, and everyone is equipped differently to be effective, not only are leaders and managers responsible for supporting those who need care and support but for taking care of colleagues and influencing the quality of care across the sector and the wider system.

We are running a leadership programme in partnership with the North East Leadership Academy, to offer key insights, knowledge and skills and learning to better manage, perform, motivate and ultimately become a successful leader. The programme covers 5 modules which leads people to reflect on their practice, learn coaching techniques and manage change within teams. 

Values based recruitment

We are looking to develop values based approaches to recruitment (and retention) to enable us to find and keep people who have the right values and attitude to work in care.

Enablement

Our enablement framework covers three core areas:

• citizenship
• independence
• self-management

This framework gives adults the opportunity and confidence to relearn and regain some of the skills they may have lost because of poor health, disability or after a spell in hospital helping to offer individuals independence to enjoy a full and active life.

Person centred approaches

In Adult Social Care this is our way of thinking and doing things that sees people using health and social services as equal partners in the planning, development and monitoring of their care to ensure that it meets their needs. It involves working with people and their families to find the best way to provide their desired care and standards.

Strengths based approaches

Promoted within the Care Act, strengths-based approaches focus on an individual's strengths and talents and are outcome focused. We have begun our journey to develop strengths-based approaches right across the Adult Social Care service to ensure they put individuals at the centre of everything they do. Working closely with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and learning from the work of our Achieving Change Together Team, who work in a strengths based way, the service is working towards developing a strengths based approach which will improve the health and well-being of our service users.

Co-Production

Co-Production is where everyone involved in a service has an equal role in creating and delivering that service. We recognise that co-production is the most reaching way that services can be influenced by the people who use them. Co-production goes beyond giving feedback and consultation and is instead based around partnership and joint ownership. People who would be part of this partnership are:

• people with lived experience of using services
• care-givers and families of people with lived experience
• practitioners working within services
• senior and strategic managers

Those involved in co-production should be a reflection of the people accessing the services that are produced, so it is expected that co-production will involve a diverse group of people.