This is a brand new approach to adult social care assessments which views everyone as unique individuals who have strengths, assets, gifts and talents. 

Through the work of the Deal for Adult Social Care and Health, Wigan Council will support people to live the best life they can, rather than fitting them into an inflexible range of traditional and expensive services.

Focusing on an asset based approach takes into consideration what a person can do and enjoys doing, rather than what they can’t do. This includes:

• A different conversation - which positively focusses on an individual and their talents, hobbies and interests, what they can do, rather than what they can’t
• Building community capacity - which focusses on understanding what is in the local community and building these assets through working in a more joined up way.

What are the principles?

The principles behind the Deal for Adult Social Care and Health fundamentally support the Care Act 2014 as the main principles of the act focus on early intervention and prevention, more choice and control around care for service users and improving wellbeing.

Prevention

Combined with the Care Act, this Deal will look at a range of community based solutions to prevent long term health and social care issues. This includes opportunities to help residents stay active such as reablement/rehabilitation and community activities which are suited to an individual’s talents.

Control

Putting residents at the heart of this Deal and taking a person-centred approach focuses on what residents need and what they can do rather than what they cannot do.

Wellbeing

Wigan Council wants to ensure that residents live the life they want and to fulfil their potential, by supporting them with interventions that meet their needs and wishes.

How will the asset based approach be applied to various job roles/teams?

The key to successfully implementing and rolling out this Deal is to have an engaged workforce that are able to recognise, value and maximise the collective resources in a community amongst residents, professionals, businesses and organisations rather than working from people’s deficits, problems and needs. They will also display the BeWigan behaviours:

• Be Positive - taking pride in what you do, where you work and the service you offer to customers
• Be Accountable - focusing on how Wigan Council deliver services, how they can work with partners and colleagues in a smarter way and make improvements
• Be Courageous - being open to doing things differently and being prepared to have a different conversation.

In practice the Deal for Adult Social Care and Health will mean different things for different teams and may include:

• Social Workers and Social Care officers - Carrying out assessments taking into consideration the environment, life stories, hobbies and interests
• Support workers - Having asset based conversations to personalise care to individuals hobbies and aspirations
• Public Health - Looking at the bigger picture to help enable people to make pro-active steps to improve their health and wellbeing.

How will this Deal see Wigan Council work with partners?

Wigan Council are working across adult social care and health to enable communities to play a more active part in the design and delivery of services.

This means giving practitioners and frontline workers across agencies and disciplines more expectations to work with each other in an integrated way. It also means more freedom to work with service users and carers to better identify locally available support in our communities.