The small pieces of the puzzle that make the big picture
Most often we compare life to a puzzle, made up of different events, instances and persons as the different puzzle pieces that fit in the whole picture.
While there may be moments when the pieces seem disarranged and the picture seems blurry particularly for those most vulnerable in society, the Social Care Standards Authority continues to strive to interconnect the pieces through its visionary and innovative perspective.
As the regulator for social welfare services, the Authority strives towards colouring and enriching the pieces of the puzzle of the most vulnerable in society who utilise such services for diverse reasons. Be it a child in residential care or an adopted one, through the establishment of social regulatory standards developed in full consultation with the affected parties, it aims to ensure that such standards are not published only for the reference of professionals, but to create a reference point for children to have more knowledge on what they should expect from the service they are receiving. On a practical level, the children are given more of a voice with regard to their concerns on the extracurricular activities that they would like to attend as well as how they would like to spend their free time, the quality of care they should be receiving and the role of the caregivers taking into consideration the particular situation they are in.
This is done to ensure that they are feeling empowered, to springboard their life towards achieving their goals, dreams and aspirations.
From the perspective of an older person in a residential home, the focus of the Authority is to concentrate its attention on the details of the puzzle pieces in the lives of such cohort. Thus, challenging the perception that life takes a pause the moment a person enters such an environment. Through the inspections and visits conducted by the Authority itself, it is wonderful to observe the marvel of older persons who are still active through the activities organised in the residence they are in, be it crafting a crib themselves in preparation for Christmas, be it preparing traditional sweets just like they used to at their own personal homes or attending visits to historical places they may not have had the chance to visit before.
Nevertheless, such experiences may be overshadowed with bitter practices that impinge on the care necessary depending on the frailty of the person. In this respect, in order to continue its enforcement arm, the Authority shall sustain its inspections and recommendations with the publication of regulations focusing on residential services for older persons, including the obligation of fines where necessary. Such regulations shall compliment the social regulatory standards in this area to ensure that aspects of the personal care plan, nutrition and medical and healthcare aspects are being executed. Additionally, the necessary protection and safeguarding as well as staff requirements, feedback, safe working practices, service provision and physical environment also form a significant part of the puzzle in the care of older persons, thus enabling that such environment gives a more inviting and personalised touch.
Meanwhile, the puzzle towards more social justice and social solidarity also includes the provision of services within the community or at an outreach level where possible, in order to have another point of view rather than focusing only at care from an institutional perspective.
While noting that such services within the community are available for a wider range of individuals, be it those with problems of substance abuse and other dependencies, older persons or persons with disability amongst others, it is necessary to denote the diversity in the needs and circumstances that is to be addressed in social welfare provision. In this respect, it is crucial to address further elements of empowerment within person-centred interventions as well as ensuring that there is inter-agency collaboration pushing forward the needs of the individuals in a personalised manner.
In this respect, while the Authority has already published its guidelines and principles for day centre services catering for persons with disability, work is also in progress on the publication of such guidelines for similar services offered towards older persons, especially as the Authority recognises the vitality that the activities organised in such settings in keeping the respective users active and engaged.
Being an evolving regulator, further standing is being given towards evidence-based research, not only for the purpose of publication of social regulatory standards, but also for propositions for policy drafting and recommendations. In this regard, the Authority is also conducting social intelligence exercises with a focus on the experiences of vulnerable persons and their relatives in order to extract more detail on the amendments necessary in particular sectors based on personal involvements.
Additionally, through its quality assurance and inspectorate functions, the Authority is continuously investigating cases of feedback reported in order to ascertain the principles of good governance within licensed social welfare services. In its efforts to target such principles in the running of social welfare services, the Authority shall also run a series of mystery shopping exercises in order to monitor firsthand social welfare service provision and thus issue recommendations for concrete and necessary improvements.
When compiling a puzzle, we often observe the way in which the pieces evolve together to make one whole picture. As social welfare regulator, the aim is to connect the pieces and actions by relatives, professionals and service providers towards vulnerable people so as to ensure that such experience positively shapes the picture of who such people evolve to be for them to achieve their lifelong ambitions.