Model Partnership Relationships

Project Objectives and Scope

Care is provided for people with learning disabilities in the South West Region by a number of key service providers. Up to 75% of spend on Learning Disability is residential care.

There are a number of examples of partnership relationships with key providers where costs have been reduce for both the authority and the provider and have resulted in greater choice and better outcomes for individuals.

Therefore the aims of this project are to:

• Develop at least one working example of partnership relationships with larger providers.
• Develop new protocols and commercial and legal agreements supporting partnership relationships with providers (including use of individualised budgets) to ensure quality and choice.
• Include provision in the new protocols and legal agreements for ‘In Control’ and Individual Budgets.
• Work with providers and local authorities in the South West region to develop practical community-based alternatives to residential care (for example Supported Living or Adult Placement Schemes) and include the use of individualised budgets to fund packages of support.

There is a national drive (e.g. from the Department of Health’s Care Services Improvement Partnership) to move towards individualised budgets. Some people with learning disabilities may choose to use their funding to purchase support other than residential care and with their funding local authorities, seek the best value for the services they buy. Therefore, partnership relationships must be flexible and encourage innovation in individualised budgets.

Anticipated gains from the project:

It is probable that there will be no direct cashable or non-cashable efficiency savings achieved during the course of this project. The work done will identify efficiency savings that might be made in the future as a result of the project. The autumn 2003/4 returns to the Department of Health showed a spend on learning disability services across the South West at £242 million, and that about 75% of this is (£182 million) is spent on residential care. If authorities only make a saving of 1% on £182 million as a result of this project they will benefit by £1.82 million, and a saving of 2% would benefit authorities by £3.64 million.

See document 0034-0039 PID RCE efficiency _Adult Services LD projects v0.2_HM REVISED DRAFT 240806_WITH NOTES.xls” for further details about costs and benefits, including assumptions and calculations (available from SWCoE).

Wider implications and anticipated gains if it were successfully rolled out:

This is a project that Local Authorities in the South West have been requested to become involved in a common interest in its outcomes and benefits are established. The project is likely to be of wider interest in the same way as the Fair Pricing Tool underpinning Project Proposals 1 and 2 which have already attracted attention nationally from the Department of Health Valuing People Team and the Care Services Improvement Partnership.