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This paper provides an overview of an improvement project that explored whether the implementation of IoRN2, a validated freely available tool designed for any health or social care professional to use, resulted in improved conversations across professions within an integrated rehabilitative reablement service.

A qualitative descriptive evaluative approach was applied underpinned by quality improvement Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) to capture perceptions, variables and IoRN2 value-add. Professionals' (N = 8) across Nursing, Allied Health Professions, Social Work, Quality Improvement and Support Workers participated in one-to-one semi-structured <1 h interviews. Recurring themes and experiences were identified.

IoRN2 improved collaborative conversations. The evaluation of the tool demonstrated greatest impact when all professionals were IoRN2 trained. Participants, regardless of profession, believed that their conversations, professional relationships and outcomes improved when using IoRN2. When differing judgments arose with colleagues who were not IoRN2 trained, fear and tension emerged around trust, cultural manners and power play causing disconnects. Incorporating IoRN2 led to psychologically safe environments where trust, confidence and motivation to explore new creative conversations enhanced strength-based outcomes and helped to generate transformational change.

The small sample size offered transferable learning worthy of larger future study. The project lead was also the reablement service manager, which may have generated unintended influence.

IoRN2 has the potential to improve how HSC professionals converse, acting as a catalytic tool for system-level integration, transformation and sustainable improvement.

Reshaping Care for Older People (RCOP) and Integration of Health and Social Care are central to providing a care system in Scotland that meets older people's current and future needs. Their implementation requires a workforce with the appropriate knowledge, skills and values to engage with older people across health and social care sectors, which requires a change in professionals’ thinking about services. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

NHS Education for Scotland, the Scottish Social Services Council and a learning and development consultancy designed and delivered innovative education resources to support health and social care staff across Scotland to understand the new agenda and recognise its meaning for practice.

Two related resources were developed: workshop using actors to depict scenarios from older people's lives to support participants to reflect on the new policy direction and outcomes-focused approaches; and an online resource using the same characters that can be delivered locally for groups and individuals. Participants were enabled to identify what they need to do differently and how they can support one another to make necessary changes. A formal evaluation has been commissioned.

The resource characters represent the people the new policy is designed to affect. By following their lives through an educational drama approach, health and social care staff can understand the difference RCOP and the integration agenda can make and recognise their part in effecting change.

Short breaks enable unpaid carers to have a life alongside caring, supporting their physical and emotional well-being. In the UK, short breaks are usually explored during a Carers Assessment. The conversations underpinning these assessments require considerable skill and presently there are few tools to support the exploration of short break needs, desired outcomes and options. Images are used in other conversations to enhance communication, help people consider options and broaden thinking. This study aims to explore whether and how stakeholders thought images might support short break conversations.

To improve access to meaningful short breaks, we need to be guided by the insights of unpaid carers, those they support, practitioners, commissioners and policymakers. We hosted two online involvement events, designed to facilitate the exchange of perspectives and ideas amongst diverse stakeholders. The events explored the acceptability, facilitators and challenges of using images to enhance unpaid carer short break conversations.

The online events were attended by 47 short break stakeholders. These stakeholders saw merit in using images to support short break conversations. They identified several facilitators and challenges to introducing images into practice. The paper highlights how this learning can inform future research and practice development.

Supporting the well-being of older unpaid carers is a pertinent concern as the number of older unpaid carers continues to grow. This paper reports on how stakeholders have informed the earliest stages of practice and research development in a relevant area and provides a model of involvement that others can emulate.

This paper aims to follow up on a previous quantitative research project which established that outcome‐focussed care appeared to be associated with an increase in the individuals' subjective well‐being. The purpose of this paper is to establish why the intervention enabled this.

The study utilised a qualitative approach to gather the subjective experience of the individual service users. The sample consisted of 20 service users, who were subject of two semi‐structured interviews; one interview at the start of the intervention and one at the six month stage. The data were then analysed under core themes raised by the service user in these interviews. The sample was divided into two, with one group receiving the outcome‐focussed model of care and the other group receiving the traditional time focussed care.

The research established that service users' subjective well‐being improved due to the ability of outcome‐focussed care to provide consistency, flexibility and most importantly the ability of the service user to form a relationship with the homecare workers providing their care.

This paper will assist professionals to understand why outcome‐focus care has a profound impact upon service users' subjective well‐being as opposed to the existing task focussed care.

This and the previous paper provide an insight into how different processes and models of intervention impact upon the subjective well‐being of socially isolated older people.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of carers as coordinators of care in their own right. It outlines how statutory and voluntary agencies can work together to support carers in this role, yet also help them work towards personal outcomes to sustain their own quality of life. It also proposes that approaches to working with carers can reveal lessons for integration.

The research analysed data from focus groups and document analysis to examine how carers and professionals experienced two different approaches to engaging with carers: the Midlothian carer ' s assessment and VOCAL ' s outcomes focused approach. From this, several themes emerged which are relevant to the current debate on integration.

Carers were found to be key co-ordinators of care who play a role in the integration of services. Approaches to working with carers can better enable personal outcomes, and integrate carers as equal partners. In addition, improved integration between services can also improve outcomes for carers.

Approaches to working with carers should be carer and outcome focused, and partnership working can mean that carers feel more empowered and included. This helps to achieve personal outcomes, as well as enhance integrated working between other services. However, differentiation between services might, in places, contribute to better outcomes for people.

This paper shifts the focus of integration to look the role of carers as equal partners, and also illustrates how statutory and voluntary services can work better together, while preserving their distinct identities.

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of a Local Authority in their attempt to embed a personalised approach to Safeguarding. In 2013, Rochdale Adult Care took part in a three-month Making Safeguarding Personal improvement work pilot to facilitate a shift in emphasis from process to a commitment to improve outcomes for individuals at risk of harm.

New safeguarding referrals to an established Safeguarding Team were used to capture “outcomes” from the start of an enquiry. A work plan was developed, which included the creation of a pro forma to help frame a conversation between professional and individual. This facilitated recording and collating to help devise a menu of outcomes for reporting to the Local Safeguarding Adult Board. The pilot also helped to formalise and standardise “outcomes” practice and introduced an “outcome focussed” interview at the start and end of the safeguarding to identify and measure outcomes with the individual.

By involving workers throughout the pilot, they were able to identify their own practice improvements, understand the benefits to individuals who were reported to be more engaged with the safeguarding enquiry and suggest changes to processes that were a departure from the regimented requirements of “No Secrets” (Department of Health (DH), 2000).

This approach has enabled a group of social workers to now act as champions to embed MSP throughout the adult care service following a local restructure.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) programme undertaken in 2013/2014 and summarises the learning and messages from this phase of work. This informed both the subsequent mainstreaming of the programme to all councils, and national policy on safeguarding adults in England.

Following the “test bed” phase in 2012/2013, MSP pilots were developed in 53 councils. They adopted a new outcomes focused and person led approach to adult safeguarding practice. Supported by the Local Government Association and partners, these councils changed their safeguarding practice and how adults were involved in safeguarding processes. Adults’ wishes were identified at the early stages of investigation, and reviewed during and at the end of the safeguarding process. In total, 43 councils provided impact statements on work undertaken, mainly between December 2013 and February 2014.

Key findings from the impact statements evidenced that adopting a personalised approach made safeguarding more effective and provided opportunities for developing social work practice. A range of challenges were encountered and overcome. The experiences of the MSP pilot sites informed the Care Act guidance issued in October 2014.

The MSP programme has stimulated an innovative culture change in safeguarding adults’ practice. It provides a means for Safeguarding Adults Boards to ascertain the effectiveness of local services in achieving the desired outcomes of vulnerable adults at risk of abuse or harm. Practitioners, managers and others will have an interest in this major change.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the signs of safety and wellbeing practice framework offers a practical and logical reinforcement for the Making Safeguarding Personal programme within the practice context of the Care Act. The new practice framework orientates safeguarding practice to be person led and person centred while reinforcing an outcomes focus.

The principal social worker co-led the design and pilot programme where the new practice framework was developed and trialled.

A practice framework that houses the policy and practice updates needed to deliver the Care Act and Making Safeguarding Personal agenda is logical and necessary for the practitioners. An outcomes focus is encouraged because safeguarding practice is goal orientated and outcome focused.

A debate about how practice frameworks can help achieve the Making Safeguarding Personal approach and deliver on the Care Act principles is offered. This is a new and important debate for adult social care; a debate well-established across children’s services.

A debate about how practice frameworks can help achieve the Making Safeguarding Personal approach and deliver on the Care Act principles is offered. This is a new and important debate for adult social care; a debate well-established across children’s services.