Welcome to everyone interested in our exciting recruitment opportunities.
The Council’s vision for adult social care Delivering Choice and Independence, is aligned with the national promotion of self-directed care, which forms part of a wider ‘choice’ agenda.
At the centre of this are changes in the way we work that provide the people who use social care services and their carers with more control over the services they choose. The Delivering Choice and Independence programme, and Adult Social Services more generally, is closely linked with the national developments in this area. For example, Barnet was a national pilot site for self-assessment and we are working closely with the national ‘In Control’ programme for individual budgets.
We have been working hard over the past year to improve performance and we have seen some excellent results. Our outcome measures were all rated ‘Good’ in last year’s Care Quality Commission assessment and we are hopeful that some will move to ‘Excellent’ this year.
We have strong partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors, our Mental Health and Learning Disability services are well integrated with Health and we have some excellent services for older people, which work closely with the third sector.
When I meet with staff, I am always pleased to see what a positive staff group we have in the teams across the service, and it is encouraging to know that, as the recent Care Quality Commission stated, that these staff feel well supported by their managers. I have never underestimated the positive impact on services, of teams that work well together, made up of workers who feel valued and have opportunities for development and job satisfaction. The Management Team and I want staff in Barnet Adult Social Services to continue to feel valued, happy and proud of their work, and we are committed to working hard to achieve this.
The Adult Social Services department is well respected within the council and receives excellent support from the Corporate Management Team, Cabinet Members and other departments.
We continue to strive to be at the forefront of excellence in social care. Of course, we have challenges and we will continue to have challenges, but we have clear plans in place to respond to these and the skills and enthusiasm to use them to achieve better services for Barnet residents.
The Delivering Choice and Independence programme is also linked to the Council’s wider efforts to improve and modernise the way in which we work. These include the introduction of Wisdom, our electronic social care records system and the introduction of mobile and home working.
I hope that after reading more about us, you will be interested in applying to join the team. I really enjoy working here and I am proud to have such excellent people in my department.
Yours sincerely,
Irene Findlay OBE
Director of Adult Social Services