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Sheffield Joint Learning Disabilities Service

"There is a real commitment to partnership working here, because we have a common goal. We're all here to provide the best service possible to clients and know that working together on improving the service doesn't mean we don't disagree on other things. After all, I have my members' interests to think about. But we're used to putting day-to-day issues to one side while we deal with service delivery."
Susan Highton, Unison Branch Secretary

Service reorganisation presents challenges…

The Sheffield Joint Learning Disabilities Service was set up to bring together provision from Social Services and Sheffield Care Trust. This followed a large consultation exercise undertaken with service users, family carers and employees about the modernisation of services for people with learning disabilities. The consultation revealed the need for a more streamlined approach, providing a "joined up" service across Social Services and Health Services that would support people with a learning disability to have fulfilled lives.

Service integration is story repeated across many organisations in the public sector, and presents challenges of coordinating often very different structures and ways of working. A successful reorganisation depends on joint working as managers, employees and trade unions identify what joint services mean for job design, terms and conditions of employment and most importantly, service delivery and maintaining a focus on meeting the needs of the people served.

At Sheffield, challenges have also been posed by different histories of approaches to partnership and consultation around service delivery issues. The management team at the service reflected that while partnership working had traditionally been strong in the Care Trust, it had been somewhat weaker in social services.

…which can only be tackled by joint working…

After establishing the Joint Learning Disabilities Service, a project was instigated to look at the implications of the merger and to deliver service improvements through a partnership approach to working with unions and ultimately, to deliver a single framework for working with the recognised unions.

A Steering Group was set up with members from trade unions, HR and management side. The group agreed a three-stage approach to the project, with workshops at each stage.

1. Identifying the problem
2. Establishing principles of partnership working
3. Working in partnership to deliver service improvements

…and the first step is to identify the challenges and barriers…

The first stage of the project involved a diagnostic activity using a questionnaire with all the key stakeholders from the newly founded learning disabilities service.

The questionnaire findings which were presented to the stakeholders gave an overview of all the current practices which existed in the care trust and social services. They also provided an insight into what the Joint Learning Disabilities Service wanted to achieve regarding its own culture and industrial relations framework. This enabled the group to analyse the kind of work that was needed, what the new service change processes should be and the methods for involving trade unions, HR and managers in the early stage of devising these processes.

…and then agree on the way forward…

The second stage focused on joint working and the principles of good communication. This involved trade union representatives, staff members, team leaders and managers. The group considered how to establish a system of partnership working in the new joint service. They used a 'look back to the future' exercise to develop a shared vision of how the service should relate to clients, families and carers. Anita Winter from the management team puts "look back to the future" simply: "What do we have now, what do we want, how do we achieve it and how do we work together to get there?" The exercise brought together employees and managers who realised that both had similar visions for the new service.

The group also looked at the barriers to good communication and examined ways of putting in place more effective communication strategies. Sue Palfreyman, from the management team says the main challenge is to communicate effectively across both sectors, but get people thinking in terms of a joint service.

…and then do it!…

The final stage concentrated on the practical issues of involving the right people to achieve the agreed outcomes. A workshop was held to look at training people to be able to work in partnership and to establish an effective communication strategy. The event was successful in bringing the different stakeholders together and in reaching agreement on how the new service can work to deliver improved services through joint working. The partnership work around communication also gave an opportunity for frontline staff to make a difference to service developments. For example an idea from a staff member led to the creation of the learning disabilities website for Sheffield, fully accessible to people with a learning disability.

…so what's the result?…

The Joint Learning Disabilities Service is now to have a single partnership agreement that lays out the agreed way of working across all recognised unions and both employing organisations. It will introduce a single consultative framework and demonstrates the commitment to investment in partnership approaches.

…what about next steps?…

The steering group has agreed that the next step will be to design, develop and deliver a modular based programme of joint training between first line supervisors, managers and trade union representatives. The programme is designed to embed joint working and will cover such issues as management of change; sickness management, grievance and disciplinary procedures; flexible working and harassment and bullying. Anita Winter says that joint training allows employees, managers, HR and trade union representatives to better understand each other's roles and encourages joint working on day to day issues including service delivery.

…and lessons learnt?…

Sheffield Joint Learning Disabilities Services has had success in actively engaging the workforce and trade unions in developing new ways of working and a vision for improved service delivery. Managers and trade union reps agreed that the workshops were an excellent start to get people thinking about designing services around the service users' needs. Anita Winter and Sue Palfreyman also agreed that having a discrete area of work around joint working makes it easier to present the evidence on the impact on service improvement. This gives added credibility when presenting the results to employees, managers and leaders.

The challenge is now to embed joint working around service improvement in day-to-day processes. Sue Highton from Unison says that when you have all these other things going on such as Agenda for Change and single status negotiations, it's difficult to physically find the time to look regularly at service improvements. But then, she reflects, you don't want to get to the point where people say to you - what happened to that partnership project? - because the moment's lost.