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Four key approaches to change SeCtion one
Board proposing that the service be given greater freedom to develop new working practices, and that Manager D was given authority to use the budget creatively so long as the services remained within the available funding. This would in turn enable Manager D to give the staff team more flexibility in how the resources were used.
Another issue that had been raised through the Soft-Systems Methodology was that people living in the homes did not always feel able to make decisions over their lives. This was often mentioned in connection with being able to arrange support from a staff member that they liked in order to pursue an activity or interest. Following the care management reviews each of the people had been informed of their personal budget, but none of them or their family members were able or interested to hold this directly. Manager D therefore suggested that the funding be held in the form of Individual Service Funds. These would be managed by LAD but with greater transparency over how they were deployed and therefore greater opportunity for them to be used more creatively and flexibly that previously. She secured agreement from the Chief Executive that this could include them buying in hours (or indeed the whole care package) from another agency if this was in the person’s interest.
As part of the implementation process Manager D kept a focus on the monitoring processes that had begun to be sketched out in the decision phase. She was very keen that these would be sufficiently understood before the move happened so that the various sources of information could be gathered from the first day.
Sustaining the change
Throughout the process of implementing the move Manager D continued to amend the various diagrams that had been developed during the Soft-Systems Methodology. Once everyone had settled in to their new flats she met with the tenants and reviewed with them their initial PDRs, the original model and a new one that included the additional or amended elements that he had been picked up over the past few months. Following their comments she amended this again. She then called a meeting in the community centre located in the housing scheme and invited the tenants, their families, staff and the board to attend for as long or short a time as they choose following an open space event approach. He put up the posters that had been previously been used to capture the PQRs previously and the two models. People were encouraged to have a conversation regarding the model and to write on (or ask someone else to write on) their views, with the only rule being that people had to put their name next to a comment. This led to considerable discussions and following the day Manager D redrew another model. This process was continued every year.
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