Online Survey on Proposed New Day Opportunities Offer for Nottinghamshire County Council Day Services

Closed 31 Aug 2023

Opened 30 Jun 2023

Contact

0300 500 8080

asknottsdayopps@nottscc.gov.uk

Overview

In 2020/21 Nottinghamshire County Council spoke to a wide range of people about what a ‘meaningful day’ meant to them.  In April 2022, the Council introduced a new five-year Day Opportunities Strategy (2022-27).

We would like your views about changes we’re proposing to make to Day Services directly provided by Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC), supporting people to get the most out of their day and delivering the Day Opportunities Strategy vision.

The Day Opportunities Strategy sets out a future vision for:

  • an inclusive society where mainstream leisure and employment support is accessible to people with care and support needs, using personalised approaches which help people to live the lives they want
  • providing short term support and periods of longer-term support for those who need it
  • people with low levels of support having access to opportunities within their communities
  • people with higher levels of need may continue to require a building-based service, but the aspiration remains that everyone should be able to access their communities if they wish

Day Services make up the majority of day opportunities and benefit approximately 1,400 people with a range of care and support needs across Nottinghamshire. This includes older adults, people with physical disabilities, people with learning disabilities, people with autism and people with mental health issues. Services are delivered directly by the Council as well as independent organisations.

Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) provided Day Services:

Day Services directly provided by the Council are currently provided in 11 locations across the county.

The buildings are of mixed condition, location and suitability in providing a modern, fit for purpose and community-based environment.

833 people regularly use the Council’s Day Services and services are integrated across both age and disability.

During the Covid pandemic, the number of people attending services reduced as people accessed other community-based services. The number of people attending services is about 30% lower than in 2020.

Developing a new Day Opportunities offer for NCC provided Day Services:

The publication of the Day Opportunities strategy gives an opportunity to improve the service offer in line with the strategy’s vision.

We will develop a new service offer which has a clearer focus, better outcomes for people and responds to people’s needs and aspirations.

Proposals for a new service offer will be based on the four levels of support set out in the strategy.

The service at Brooke Farm will only have a light touch review, with minimal change, as significant change has already taken place following review in 2018.

Whatever changes are made to the model of service, we will review our staffing levels and skills to make sure that our staff are well trained and in the right place to deliver the service.

Budget:

We do not have an unlimited amount of money to make the changes that we would like to and would need to move resources around to make best use of them.

As you know, all Councils have faced tough times in recent years and there is a need to make sure that we spend the Council’s money wisely to try to protect all services that the Council provides as far as possible. This means that all departments must look at their budgets very carefully and make spending reductions where they can. We think that we can deliver an improved model of service whilst saving £1 million each year going forward, which is about 8% of our net day service budget.

Proposed Day Opportunities offer:

Some of the things that we are thinking about includes …

  • Personalised programmes of activity
  • Better community links
  • “One Stop Shop” for information and advice
  • Carer support hubs
  • Promoting people’s independence more
  • Specialist support for people with dementia and autism
  • Work training and employment support
  • Greater use of technology
  • Extended hours that could include evenings and weekends
  • Improved services but in fewer locations

Co-Production:

We will work with people who use our services, their families, and others to keep them informed, involved and supported in any changes that we decide to make and we are keen to ensure that our new service model reflects people’s thoughts and views wherever possible.

To support this, we have held a number of face to face events across the county to talk to people about the proposal. If you were unable to attend a face to face event, we would still like to hear from you and would be grateful if you could complete the survey.

The survey asks for your views on our proposed changes and will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Please answer the questions and provide more information in the text boxes after each question so we can gather your views.