SWIFT Replacement Programme. Following the withdrawal of Northgate Public Services from the social care marketplace, all Local Authority customers using the SWIFT product are required to replace their social care management systems.This post is a unique opportunity to participate in a radical redesign of how our key services of Adult Social Work, Children’s Services and Criminal Justice are delivered to the citizens of Perth and Kinross: ensuring there is a solid foundation from which to deliver improved services, enabling more strategically aligned partnership working across Health and other sectors, and ideally – finally establishing a single product solution for health and social care that will enable us to respond to the increasingly complex requirements of our citizens and communities. This post also allows me to fully engage my alternative skill set around improvement methodology paired together with my experience of social services in a way that I have been looking for opportunities to do for some time.The quality of the data collected by frontline staff together with the system used to do so is of vital importance to our business. The processes used and flow of information are integral to smooth efficient function, service user experience, and staff satisfaction. In order for us to make intelligent decisions on how we structure services and maximise our resources we require an improved product with intuitive design and function that will allow us to provide an efficient quality service, whilst minimising waste time and eliminating none value added activity.This is an exciting time for health and social care to develop and innovate on how we support communities, individuals, and our workforce. New ways of working need to develop in line with new ways of thinking, This Project Manager role has presented the perfect opportunity for me to focus my attention on areas of our business that I have a real passion for.

Housing and Community Care, Adult Services.Managing a large team of social workers, social work assistants, community care assistants and supporting paraprofessional staff within a busy generic adult care locality team. Supporting structural and organisational change within the local authority as part of the Health and Social Care Partnership, change management, transformational leadership and matrix management skills are key to this role. As well as the practical management of a statutory service adhering to legislative duties within social work, within my role much attention and energy is paid towards supporting attitudinal and behaviour change across the organisation post restructure of teams, which includes the dissolve of specialist teams within niche practice areas and adopting a generic practitioner role. I am now focusing on the design and implementation of Integrated Care Teams in partnership with our NHS Colleagues, to transform and improve the delivery of health and social care in the community, reduce hospital admissions, and minimise delayed discharge from hospital.Improvement programmes and system redesign is also a large part of my role - and a special area of interest for me in terms of being able to affect positive change in the way we work, how we deliver, and how it feels to work in my team within this industry. Six Sigma and Lean Management skills are also at my disposal, which may be slightly unusual for a psychologist social worker, however the blend of Humanities and Science compliment one another in a way that enables me to look after the people in my team at the same time as maximising efficiencies and improving the service we deliver to the public we support.

This role focused on longer term and complex case management for adults with social care and forensic needs. A large part of this senior role also included enhanced support for the Team Leader in terms of staff support, supervision of staff, and strategic development. Within this post I was also focused on complex statutory duties around Adult Support and Protection, and Adults with Incapacity.

Adult Care.

Working as part of a small team this role focused on supporting those affected by homelessness within Perth and Kinross. Issues often included working with clients experiencing comorbidities around mental health, substance misuse, trauma, and offending behaviour. To do this successfully person centred support was delivered in coproduction with clients around Life skills development, counselling, resettlement and support to maintain stable tenancies. Within this post I also developed community detox programs in partnership with the local authority and health colleagues, to support clients with problematic alcohol dependency issues.Here I also researched and developed a very successful and bespoke holistic assessment tool (PFT: Priority Focus Tool) to support clients to identify the interlinks between their social care needs, and how to prioritise and triage support in focusing our work together in task centred, solution focused practice, at the same time as employing motivational interviewing techniques and relapse prevention work.

A vibrant research and development company producing medical devices to support health and wellbeing, this role focused on the design and manufacture of pioneering devices new to the market in managing cardiac disease. Six Sigma and Lean Management skills were required to improve efficiency, minimise none value activity from processes (SMED), improve quality and performance within the manufacturer of devices in a controlled environment at ISO9000 standard. Process flow mapping, critical error analysis, streamlining and optimisation using Kaizen principles were key to this role, and an area of special interest for me in my career development.

Supporting people with severe and enduring mental health issues to live safely and successfully within supported community settings, post long term hospital admission. This role focused on person centred support and positive behavioural change support to develop independent living skills, and risk management strategies for those with forensic needs (public protection).