Organisational Development
Outcomes have become a key policy theme in health and social care since the latter half of the last decade. Better Outcomes For Older People (Scottish Executive 2005) set out four national outcomes for service users and carers were to serve as the objective for partnership activity: supporting more people at home, assisting people to lead independent lives, ensuring people receive an improved quality of care and better involvement of and support for carers. These high level outcomes remain a priority in face of the economic downturn and demographic pressures. A challenge at local and organisational level is translating these high level aspirations into good outcomes for individuals.
Ensuring that service users and carers are involved in decision-making and that the right support is made available to those who need it, as opposed to the often prescriptive and service led solutions previously on offer, can both deliver on person-centred objectives whilst also resulting in more efficient and effective use of resources. This approach builds on the strengths and capacities of individuals as compared to service led approaches which emphasised deficits and dependency. Strong links are being identified between outcomes based working and enablement or reablement approaches, as illustrated in the following case study from East Renfrewshire.
A further advantage of outcomes based working is that personal outcomes approaches like Talking Points provide a common language that can be understood by people using services and their carers, as well as across statutory and provider services. This opens up new opportunities for more effective partnership working.
Moving to outcomes based working does not require significant financial investment. The greatest costs identified by organisations have been investment in staff development programmes and time to re-orient towards the new approach. It is the case that implementing outcomes based working requires a long term commitment. However, a great deal of learning from early implementers has been incorporated in the materials available on this website and members of the Talking Points Learning and Action group have supported implementation in other areas.
The Community Care Benchmarking Network recently produced a policy and performance matrix which usefully highlights policy links relevant to outcomes.
Policy Performance Matrix [64Kb]
Basic Guide on Getting Started on Outcomes
Coventry Social Services set out their approach to becoming an outcomes focused organisation in 2007, including five key workstreams.
Becoming an Outcomes Focused Organisation [88Kb]
This guide gives an overview of considerations for organisations getting started on implementing outcomes based working.
You can find out more about how outcomes based information can be used by organisations, in the section on use of information.
Information for Providers
We have been working with providers who are developing resources to support a focus on outcomes. The JIT is working with a providers forum, for a range of providers who are already implementing Talking Points and similar outcomes based approaches. Minutes of provider forum meetings are available here:
Providers Forum Meeting Minutes 15 November [48Kb]
Providers Forum Meeting Minutes 23 August [72Kb]
At the community care outcomes conference in November 2009, three provider oganisations Garvald, Turning Point and the Richmond Fellowship, gave a joint presentation on their work with personal outcomes.
Garvald have produced Talking Points tools which have been designed specifically for people with learning disabilities. These forms and guidelines are draft versions. They are being trialled in Garvald Edinburgh's Day Service reviews from January 2010. The aim has been to embed the principles and guidelines of the Outcomes Approach in a way that is appropriate to Garvald Edinburgh's review structure and the service that it provides.
