A First Joint Learning Disability Service for the Borders
Wednesday, November 29 2006
The first fully shared offices of Scottish Borders Council (SBC) and NHS Borders were formally opened today in a move which signals increasing integration of health and social services in the Borders.
The new premises, at West Grove House, Melrose, will be a one-stop shop for assessment and administration for the area’s first joint Learning Disability Service, providing all-inclusive support to people with learning disabilities, their carers and families. It is the product of increasingly close working between the public, voluntary and independent sectors, users and carers.
For the first time, this new arrangement brings together all learning disability service staff under a single manager, who runs the overall service on behalf of SBC’s Social Work Department and NHS Borders. Among other innovations required to set it up were joint IT and data sharing systems.
The West Grove base will also be home to the Assertive Outreach team, a new service to support users with learning disabilities who may have severely challenging behaviour. Based at the new office, but working all over the Borders, this team will visit users at home, helping to tide them over difficult times and manage more effectively in the community.
As the Joint Manager for the new Learning Disability Service, Eibhlin McHugh, explained, “The Melrose office provides everything that a person with learning disabilities needs from Health, the Council and other sectors in one, convenient place. It brings together social workers, nurses, occupational therapists and allied health professionals, administration staff, public health and health promotion experts to provide one, seamless service that is easier to use and to provide.”
The official opening was attended by leading representatives of both organisations, plus service users and carers.
Following the ceremony, Elaine Torrance, SBC Head of Social Care and Health, said, “The new, joint Learning Disability Service shows what impressive results can be achieved by working across organisations, by focusing on the needs of the individual, rather than being limited by boundaries of operation. We have all come a long way since the Vulnerable Adult Inquiry, and we believe that this example of very close, inter-agency co-operation offers a brighter future to people with learning disabilities in the Borders.”
SBC Joint Portfolio Holder for Social Work, Councillor Carolyn Riddell-Carre, added, “These new offices provide users and carers with a single point of contact for the assessment and management of all the learning disability services available to them in the Borders. It means that vulnerable people don’t have to trail from place to place, registering with a variety of different services in a variety of different locations. This has been a journey of change whose primary aim is to create a Learning Disability Service that provides the protection and care that users and carers deserve.”
Councillor Riddell-Carre concluded by acknowledging the efforts of all the staff involved in setting up and running the new premises: “You have risen to the challenge of re-building the reputation of learning disability services, not just in the Scottish Borders, but in the rest of Scotland,” she said.
Chairman of Borders NHS Board, Tony Taylor, thanked the learning disability clinical staff, in particular, for their work in the development of the new, integrated services:
“I know it’s not always easy to change the way you work, but what has struck me is the way you have been open to looking at new ways to provide care for the benefit of patients and service users. The development of this new learning disability service would not have been successful if we hadn’t had a Joint Manager. By having one manager responsible to both NHS Borders and the Council, we have developed a successful model that will be used in the development of our future joint services.”
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