Improvement Cymru’s Learning Disability team has awarded improvement grants to enable projects that will support the lives of people with a learning disability through improvement. The first round of grants were awarded last summer to support teams across health, social care and education to explore new ways of working or develop innovative ideas into reality.
The projects include:
Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Martin Simmonds at Hywel Dda University Health Board is working in collaboration with third sector organisation SNAP, who are supporting parents and children who are experiencing crisis and supporting access to a specialist community of learning disability services which are collocated at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.
The project is based within the child health department and works with preschool children aged between 0-5 years with additional and complex learning needs.
Parental input has been integral to the design and development of this improvement project which aims to emphasise the ‘learning’ element for parents and carers. The aim of this project is to help reduce behaviours that challenge, increase strategies for parents and carers to utilise at home and build a network of support.
Project Lead, Cindy Jenkins said; “The Improvement Cymru grant has enabled staff to work much closer with parents, providing guidance and support which has empowered them to carry out strategies to enhance the development of their children's needs.
“We have watched parents grow in confidence, meet with other families going through the same difficulties and have managed to extend our partnership with other agencies within our community all working together for better outcomes.
“We have seen an increase in families wanting our support and we couldn't have done this without this funding.”
Working in collaboration with third-sector organisation MIND, Anglesey County Council have developed an open access hub to support families to access information as they need it. This is in response to families who have reported that the wait for specialist services can cause further distress at a time when resilience often feels compromised within the family.
The hub is hosted within the local community to provide a space for families to access early help and peer support alongside the triage process. Access to the hub is not based on diagnosis, but to offer support to families to make sense of the issues they face ‘here and now’.
The hub, offering space for integrated working between health and social care clinicians, also provides the opportunity for families and professionals to share responsibility and power in line with a vision to promote and embed coproduction.
Project lead, Shelley Lewis of Mencap Môn said: “Organisations who are waiting to see families can combine appointments and link up with each other.
“For families, this is ‘their space’. It makes a positive difference that it’s not in a clinical or specialist setting. There is no receptionist to ‘go through’.
“Families arrive and have a cuppa and decide who they want to speak to; it is changing the power dynamic.”
One of the parents attending the hub commented: “I come here and I feel normal.”
The project involves coproducing and testing a digital toolkit/platform that aims to empower people with a Learning Disability between the ages of 14 and 35 years to self-discover and express their ambitions with regards to where and how they wish to live their adult lives.
Working in partnership, the charity ‘Where I Want to Live’ and Pembrokeshire and Conwy local authorities are coproducing a prototype platform and through a process of testing will develop a final product that is designed by the end user.
The platform aims to connect people to their networks providing easy to use signposting and suggestions to aide decision making. The toolkit will be developed by a small project team who will consult with an advisory group, with representation from all groups involved in supporting people with learning disabilities in Pembrokeshire and Conwy.
One service user commented: “I believe that many people will benefit significantly from the ability to search for their desired home and others things they would like access to such as transportation and shopping.”
Richard Lloyd, from the Senior Management Team in First Choice Housing Association who sits within the advisory group added: “The advisory group has successfully developed a very engaging and user-friendly app by adopting a meaningful decision-making process throughout the project, observing transparency, and adopting a positive outcome focus.
“I feel there has been a good skill set amongst the advisory group spanning across a wide sector. Members of the group have effectively contributed their time, knowledge and experience in assisting within the development of the app.
“Being a member of the advisory group has been a really positive experience and I look forward to further development resulting from the data captured from the app.”
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board are using their funding to facilitate an improvement project focused on promoting communication outcomes for young people, aged 8 – 11 years old within a special education school.
The speech and language team will be using an application called ‘TD Snap’ to meet this need. Traditional and lower tech methods have not been able to support this cohort in the past as the vocabulary has been restricted by being paper based, and not expansive for the young person’s needs. The aim is to test the use of high tech AAC with this cohort of young people, to show that there is a solution to their communication needs which has not been widely used previously.
Lowri Walters, Speech and Language Therapist said: “We are thrilled to have been chosen to receive an Improvement Cymru grant to support our project.
“Having the opportunity to trial high tech communication aids will be an exciting offer that we hope will improve our pupil’s quality of life. By improving and developing communication skills, we aim to provide our pupils with the opportunity to reduce frustration, advocate for themselves, and expand their relationships with others.
“Our young people encounter many communication partners throughout their lives (e.g peers, teachers, health care staff, family, respite providers). Having a functional system for communication, which each of these partners can use and understand, is crucial to building relationships and reducing frustration and disengagement.”
Rebecca Curtis, Senior Improvement Manager in the Learning Disability Improvement team, added: “When we began our journey with the improvement grants, we weren't sure what to expect. However, we knew it was crucial to make the application process open to all public sectors, including health, education, and social care.
“The incredible success of this process not only showcases the dedication of our learning disability practitioners but highlights the importance of teamwork and collaboration across sectors when exploring new ideas.
“We are delighted to support a total of six projects across Wales to share the lessons learned from both successes and setbacks with our communities and networks. This presents an opportunity to scale up good practice and inspire other teams to consider changes that can be made to enhance experiences for those accessing their services.
“Despite the challenging and ever-changing landscape that services are navigating, these improvement projects are a true celebration of creative and innovative thinking. They demonstrate how committed services are to improving the quality of care for all people with a learning disability in Wales and what can be achieved when we work in collaboration with our partners.”
Projects facilitated by the improvement grants will support the Learning Disability team’s work to improve the lives of people with a learning disability by reducing inequality, as part of Welsh Government’s Learning Disability Strategic Action Plan 2022 to 2026.
Two further projects have been awarded grants; an online course for healthcare staff to support people with a learning disability Swansea Bay University Health Board and a reducing floor restraints initiative within Hywel Dda University Health Board. Updates around these projects will be communicated as they progress.