Lancashire County Council serves a population of approximately 1.24 million (2021 Census). The council owns and operates 16 care homes, offering residential, respite and dementia care, emphasising the need for high quality and compassionate support for older people.
The region has a growing elderly population, with a 34.7% increase in residents aged 65 and over in some districts, outpacing national trends which are projected to rise further in the next decade. This demographic shift highlights the increasing demand for elderly care services in the coming years.
The Challenge
Lancashire faced significant challenges with increasing demands for initial assessments and waiting list backlogs affecting between 6,000 and 10,000 individuals. Many residents had been waiting for up to 24 months, leading to delays in care adjustments and support. Compounding this issue was a deficit led approach to service delivery, where services were commissioned immediately without conducting or completing a full CareAct assessment. This practice resulted in inefficiencies across the board and potentially misaligned care provisions.
What We Did
Our team of Social Care Practice and System C Liquidlogic experts, implemented a structured strategy to reduce the backlog and waiting lists.
- Streamlined triage processes were introduced and additional capacity created to help teams catch up with the backlog and waiting lists.
- New practice models were developed called the “Living Better Lives in Lancashire” (LBLiL) framework, a strengths based practice model which was introduced across the whole county.
- Staff were trained in strengths based practices to shift focus from deficit led service commissioning, to a more holistic approach that leverages individual capabilities and their support networks.
- Over a 10 month period, Practice Embedding Sessions were delivered to help the organisation and their staff, transition from deeply entrenched, long term cultural practices, to a more adaptive strengths based approach, designed to help develop sustainable skills and practice habits
- Overcome Resistance to Change by fostering open dialogue and collaborative problem solving, facilitating sessions to address organisational and person barriers, to help create a foundation for meaningful transformation
- Analysed the Liquidlogic System and processed 12,000+ “stale” tasks from the system that were complicating triage and task prioritisation.
The Results
- Eliminated Backlog and Waiting Lists: Lancashire County Council successfully reduced a backlog and waiting list of approx 10,000 cases to full completion.
- Increased Efficiency and Data Accuracy: Through a focussed data cleansing workstream, approximately 12,000 tasks were processed and removed from the system, significantly improving accuracy of case data, making it easier to prioritise cases and tasks
- Strengths Based Approach: The adoption of a Strengths Based methodology empowered staff to assess individuals more holistically, focusing on their capabilities and support systems rather than commissioned care.
- Reduced Financial Liability: By aligning service commissioning with the completion of CareAct Assessments underpinned by the LBLiL principles, Lancashire County Council were able to reduce their financial liabilities whilst empowering people to live as independently as possible
