Coproduction: further hinderances

 

There are major issues with social services as they are working in silo’s or different quadrants within so  called large counties, which in turn causes problems for people with complex issues, for example you could have someone with autism who needs the help of an autism specialist but what good is this if they are based in the south of the said county and you are in the North.

 

The other issue is that there was a time when social services worked together as one whole team serving the needs of their recipients including mental health and instead this is farmed off to another service provider who clearly has no idea about the needs of people with complex mental health needs, because they are only providing that service for what they bid for and if you have say Complex PTSD or Complex Trauma they have no knowledge of this and may signpost you back to a service that is totally inappropriate.

 

There is a general lack of integration with mental health not just at the local level but at the regional level and unfortunately I keep reading reports or hearing people in authority stating that we are going backwards what a surprise and we have excuses that are blamed on covid and this is all due to shortages in staff which is no surprise at all.

 

Then there are problems with commissioning by putting inexperienced staff in at the deep end and this causes major problems as they are new in an area of work that they find they do not have specialist knowledge even by gathering the worst-case studies to seek out contenders for the latest stream of service provision. Should the person make light of this then they are bullied or intimidated by another from another area and this makes them feel even worse and this is not the way to go one either and in the end the people that you are trying to help suffer in the end by not having the appropriate level of care and support.

 

We are also told of social workers put in a difficult position about just how truthful they are with a potential recipient(s) concerning the numbers of hours they are actually going to get, but the hours promised to the point that the social worker ends up having to taking time off due to the stress and being put in an awkward situation about being over economical with the truth.

 

Attitude and language can also plays a role in how this affects the individual and how we feel that they are towards us and there are many different words we could bring up, but one or two come to mind such as being stonewalled, which is becoming the norm with people who are in receipt of care and support to the point that people are becoming evasive and deliberately going out of their way to avoid answering questions or providing correct information. The other that comes to mind is being gaslighted which means to manipulate (someone) by psychological means into doubting their own sanity. Unfortunately, this is happening at both levels including social workers and the recipients and if you ask any awkward questions this is what happens to you.

 

Coproduction is seen as a joke at my local authority and replacing it with citizens panels these achieve nothing and are only one sided and undermine everything that has gone before, and all the challenging work kicked away like dust on the pavement, which means nothing has changed.

 

The answer is to do away with silos as they do not work and challenge everything at a local level and start getting on with it, getting social workers on side, but getting the backroom staff of their backsides and actually seeing what it is like on the ground rather than just taking things for granted, but the answer is to get rid of those who do not like change and who will not change.

 

Instead, we should work to achieve a coproduction of rights to decide what we want to change and what MUST change for the better and how we can hold councils and local authorities to account for what they are doing and no excuses. The problem with regional constructs is they do not get down to the people at the local level and where we have silos the information is lost, or managers seem to sit on that information, and it is either binned or not followed through.

Control and Coporduction

 

There seems to be very little coproduction in our local authorities and why do you think this may be is it because they are not willing to work with people like myself who have lived experience or don’t like the thought of stepping outside of their comfort zone. For people who have lived experience this is more common than you think, and I know that there will people out there who will be questioning this.

The problem is that they think that they will be losing control and that this will cause more problems for them, and they are incorrect or does this show that they are incompetent at the role that they are there for. No one said that coproduction is easy on the contrary there are times when it is tough and demanding, because it depends on which context you are dealing with.

We all know that there are significant issues with the health and social reform and the (White Paper) but are local authorities prepared to accept these changes for the better and implement some of them or carry on in their own sweet way of treating people in receipt of direct payments and something that crept from the gutter.

For this reason I refer to their attitude towards people with High Functioning Autism and their disgusting attitude to ignore people with these needs as complex needs which is an excuse for not acknowledging people with disabilities including Autism and giving as little as they can in the way of help and yes we all know about budgets, which they use as an excuse to prevent individuals for being given the help that they equally deserve to employ their own care staff for which I refer to as PA’s.

Do you know it would be great if my local authority could just do away with area teams and treat us all in my local authority as the same and yes, the county in which I live is large, so what there are many other that are and I am sure that they are not run like tyrants running the local asylum, honestly my local authority is so mean.

Yet they have signed up to “Think Local Act Personal” in response to the I/We statements and claim that they are in use, show me the proof and that this is being implemented when doing people’s assessments, because I have not seen the evidence to suggest this. The reason is that they do not like losing their heir of importance and control, also they do not like individuals questioning their plans about coproduction and what they are doing about involving people in this activity.

Have you ever seen or been invited to get involved with coproduction with your local authority and does the local authority known what coproduction often is or do they get this confused with consultation which is not the same thing as this all comes down to control, because they do not like change, but change is coming and is it not time to lower the drawbridge and get rid of those people in positions of power who are unwilling to change their attitudes and to stop closing people into the box of this is good for them and oh no that is not good, so we will continue to patronise these people who dare to know more than we do.

We are the people with lived experience with disabilities and not just Autism or the complex needs that should be able to determine our future and how and what we need for the easing of control and the implementation of I/We statements in assessments. What we want is full coproduction not consultation used as an excuse for coproduction and please stop patronising us by thinking we are unable to cope and by emailing and sending by post silly stories on how Jane and John used their budgets during covid, excuse me we are not idiots.

We live everyday within our needs, and we do not want to be dictated to by people who just have no idea what is like to live with different ranges of disabilities or needs thank you, please stop be overwhelmingly bureaucratic in your attitudes and respect, which is lacking towards us.

What is the answer, certainly in my local authority to get rid of commissioners who are not willing to change as they are the ones who hold back the whole process. The next step is to recentralise services so we do not have this series of quadrants, because we must deal with managers who dictate what people should have in their budgets and what they are not happy with, because it might skew their budgets, surely it is about need at the end of the day and just because someone has High Functioning Autism their needs will be higher so they should receive more money, and surely all of this can be achieved through coproduction for which most LA’s are lacking.

Please discuss and inform me what you think.