1. Support Planning Working Group Meeting 10/03/11
We had a really good meeting on Thursday. Many, many thanks to Carmel for telling hers and Joe’s story which was
inspiring as always and the perfect demonstration of the potential of Personalisation. Thanks also to Liz Leech of
Imagineer for sharing some of her professional experience of support planning.
It was good to hear from Paul O’Brien, Project Lead market development at Bradford Council, that funds have been
identified for an external support planning function. In an ideal world we would have known this a while ago and be
in a much more advanced position in terms of developing a support planning service for Bradford. However, we are
where we are and following our discussions I suggest the following next steps.
• If you or your organisation is interested in providing a support planning service then send Paul O’Brien
(Paul.O’Brien@Bradford.go.uk) the following information as an expression of interest
Your name / your organisation name
Address and contact details
Brief outline of your current activities and the support planning service you would provide. Include the area
you would cover (area specific or city wide), your target customers so for example if all your experience is in
supporting older people and you want to stick to that or if you think you could support plan for people with
different social care needs, include this information. Give an idea of how you would staff this service and
how many referrals you think you could cope with per week. Costing’s are unnecessary at this stage.
I am suggesting you keep this very brief because it is just an expression of interest at this stage. *If you could
get this information to Paul by 21st March, that will give time for Jayne Hellowell, commissioning manager to
consider it before our meeting with her on 24th March.
• As there is a lack of direction from the Council, this being a very new development, my proposal will be for
the Council to collate the information from organisations then either
a. Arrange to meet as a group of interested parties for further discussions (I think collaborative or
partnership working will be the key to a robust and meaningful support planning service in Bradford
and would encourage organisations to work together on this).
b. And / or issue a support planning service spec
c. Pilot a service with a small number of organisations
Next Event
As mentioned above, we have added a working group meeting to accommodate Jayne Hellowell, commissioning
manager from the Council. This will be on Thursday 24 th March, 2.00pm - 4.00pm at Carers Resource Shipley. You will
receive an event invitation shortly but can visit www.supportplanningandbrokerageextrasession.eventbrite.com
for more info. If you said you would like to attend on the signing in form at last Thursday’s working group your place
will be booked for you.
*NB at this stage the Council is looking for organisations with the skills and capacity to do support planning and
ideally those organisations that currently offer this service or something similar.
Here are some of the questions that came up from our January session and answers from the Council
Q. Would the Council consider making transition funding available to enable organisations to move into
providing a support planning service? Some organisations recognise that support planning is similar to other
services they may offer but that they might need support to develop a well-rounded service.
A. No, this is not in the budget and will not be about setting up a 'new' service.
Q. It was recognised that support planning staff in external organisations would require training from the
council to ensure the best outcomes for customers. Can the Council please consider how it might provide
training?
A. The council will not provide support planning training. Organisations that are interested should ensure
that they understand support planning and are in a position to deliver this in Bradford i.e. understand the

2. local market, what is on offer and be able to advise and create support plans for a wide range of service
user groups.
Q. Can we have some clarification on how the council will pay for a support planning service?
Suggested models were
1. Framework contracts with various providers around the district
A. Possibly - ideas from providers welcome on this
2. Spot contracts (might be a less sustainable option for organisations needing to staff up to
provide a service)
A. Possible preferred option for the council
3. Support planning cost built into the Personal Budget (again less stability with organisations
competing for business)
A. Possibly although unlikely
Q. Quality assurance is important, in terms of recommending services it will be good to have a core, central,
controlled list of services that all support planning organisations can feed information into. Customer
reviews for services is also a good way of measuring quality and impact.
A. There is a universal directory of providers and this will migrate over to the e-marketplace in time. The
council will not control the marketplace but use its influence to shape the market - need to remember that
the council purchases services but that this does not cover the whole of the social care and support
market. Also, support plans should reflect people's aspirations to use universal services, not just 'care'
services. So a person may wish to use their budget to go out for the day or access facilities that everyone
uses, not just specialist services.
Q. How can we deal with potential conflict of interest where we may be support planners and service providers
and want to refer customers to our own services? The Council needs to consider mechanisms to allow this
to happen.
A. If a service user wishes to use a service then this should be allowed to happen. Support plans will be
monitored and evaluated to ensure people are getting the right kind of support they need. Providers will
be expected to act ethically in this area.
Q. Can the Council make available market intelligence about services people are asking for so that it can inform
providers?
A. Yes however the best intelligence will be dealing with people face to face. The conversations should start
with the person's strengths and what they want to achieve as well as aspects of their life they want to
enrich or improve.
Resources
Contact details for Liz Leech - e. mailto:liz@imagineer.co.uk t. 01274 619506 m. 07812 723 272
Contact details for Paul O’Brien - e. paul.o’brien@bradford.gov.uk t.01274 437710
Link to Bradford Self-Assessment Questionnaire www.bvcspp.wikidot.com/support-and-resources
Link to Bradford Support Plan document www.bvcspp.wikidot.com/event-documentation you will find the plan in
the Creative Support Planning Event Documentation section.
Link to Directory of Services pro forma www.bvcspp.wikidot.com/support-and-resources (it’s the 2nd document on
the page) please return all forms to shona.grange@bradford.gov.uk .
For those of you who need more information about Personalisation in Bradford and nationally, visit our web-sites
www.bradfordvcspp.org.uk and www.bvcspp.wikidot.com