CareCubed Case Study: The Royal Borough of Greenwich

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has been undertaking a piece of work to improve how packages of care are delivered for young people who are transitioning from children’s social care to adult services. As part of this project, iESE consultant Diana Sherwood worked with the council between December 2022 and April 2024 to support SEND commissioners and social care staff in working together to get the right levels of care in place for children transitioning into adult care. This process involved training social workers and commissioners and using CareCubed to evidence and inform quality assurance.

With Sherwood’s support, 13 cases of children between 14-17 years old with complex needs were reviewed. Case workers gathered information from providers which was then input into CareCubed.

Jodi Mathers, Head of SEND Social Care at the Royal Borough of Greenwich, said it had been important for case workers to understand that the process was not about questioning their decision making, but about getting the right level of person-centred care.

She said: “We were very clear with the service that we are not going to be chipping away at what a child needs. If they need 1-to-1 support they should be getting 1-to-1 support. It wasn’t to challenge practitioners’ decision making or what they have assessed. I think that helped get people on board.”

She added that the initial training delivered had been well received by her team of social workers and had helped them approach care reviews with a slightly different mentality.

“Anything that pulls together commissioning with the social work team can only improve outcomes for children.

“When we have commissioners only thinking about commissioning and social workers only thinking about care, that doesn’t align what that young person gets. This is about aligning the two systems better to get the right support for those children, and it has implications both ways. What had previously sometimes happened is a level of provision was initially agreed but over time this might shift and there wasn’t necessarily that forensic looking at each line of that arrangement. For example, if we have said 2-to-1 care is required but the young person is absconding, we should be questioning whether that is still the best way to keep that young person safe,” added Mathers.

Getting the package right for the young person, who stay with the council’s SEND team until they finish education, is important for everyone involved.

Mathers added that CareCubed offered a way of documenting the needs of children in the council’s care. For example, if care is needed that restricts the liberties of an under-18-year-old the council must be able to demonstrate that this is necessary.

“Having this scrutiny and this lens and being able to justify that it is needed, evidenced in the staff logs and their care plan, helps strengthen the evidence for those restrictive measures where we need them, and equally, where we don’t need them to facilitate independence building,” she said.

While there have been savings from the review, the focus on the work has been on improving the quality of support. “This work has been about informing quality assurance. Using the CareCubed tool and this approach helps us ensure we are child centred. Whether there are efficiencies as a result or not, working with the market and being able to compare quality, cost and provision across settings strengthens our position,” Mathers added.

To see how CareCubed can help your organisation, please visit: www.carecubed.org