Cornwall's new adult social care boss expects 'system reset' to reduce ambulance waits
Alison Bulman is hoping the plan will ease patient flows, system-wide
Last updated 8th Sep 2022
The new boss of adult social care in Cornwall says she expects a system reset in health and social care will help to ease pressures across the service and reduce ambulances waiting at Cornwall’s main hospital.
Alison Bulman started her new role as Strategic Director for Care and Wellbeing at Cornwall Council this summer, having spent her career in social care. In her last role in Wales she helped to manage the transformation of social services which had previously been criticised.
Her role sees her joining whilst there are concerns that patients who no longer need hospital treatment are blocking beds as they are unable to return home or enter residential care due to a lack of care staff.
The director, known as Ali, said that the council was working closely with health colleagues to launch a system reset which she said was hoped would improve the flow of patients and ensure that they can be discharged from hospital.
She said that there was a need to ensure that "the right care is delivered in the right place and at the right time to ensure that our residents get the care that they need and deserve". And she added that the council was trying to address a need to recruit more staff and fill vacancies across adult social care to ensure that the service can deliver.
'System reset should ease pressures'
"There is a huge challenge here in Cornwall particularly in how do we sell social care and adult social care as a career. We have people who have really good stories to tell around their work in social care.
"It is not only about a career opportunity, there are really good, rewarding jobs in social care as well. We need to have a conversation with people about how they can get involved. This is one of our key areas to address the issues that we are currently seeing in health and social care.
"We need the right staff, with the right skills in the right place to deliver the right care possible for people in Cornwall".
Ali said that the recently established Integrated Care Board was doing work with the council to look at an integrated workforce and how to build a "workforce for the future" and how the council could "grow their own" staff.
She added: "Our staff are the most valuable asset that the council has to deliver critical services. We need to look after and support those staff, their health and wellbeing and their work/life balance".
But with queues of ambulances waiting outside Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro a regular sight over the last few months and warnings that there was a risk of an "absolute crisis" in the health system there is a need for action to address the current issues.
"I am not responsible for ambulances but we are part of the response around the flow of patients out of hospital. Resetting some of those pathways will help and it will be really clear how we support people to come out of hospital in a timely way. It will take a system response to ease the situation".
Ali added: "That is the work we are doing across the system to reset that pathway. We have been working on a level of escalation in Cornwall for some time and when in escalation you react to capacity rather than the needs of the residents. What we need to do now is reset the resources we have to make sure we have that systematic flow for people to leave hospital and go home, have that period of recovery at home and then be assessed for what support they might need.
"We can then assess if they need other services in health or adult social care and work to get that in place".
She added: "It's not about money or resources, it is about having that resource in the right place and about attracting people to fill those vacancies that some of our providers have got".
The director said that there were concerns about the impact of reports of ambulance queues: "As a resident in Cornwall and living in Cornwall people must read what is going on and lose confidence in the system. I am really keen that we change that and improve people’s experience of our services and increase that level of confidence that people have in health and social care in Cornwall.
"From the local authority's point of view we are committed to fixing this, it must be done to improve the services".
"We are committed to fixing this"
Ali also said that it was important that people do contact the council if they need additional help and support and do so as early as possible: "I do encourage people to make contact with adult social care if they feel they need any support, even if that is just to signpost them to the right services. What happens if people don’t come forward at the right time the situation can get worse and they can end up in hospital. We want to make sure that people get the right care, at the right time and in the right place".
Whilst admitting that "it is really challenging at the moment", Ali said she was sure that the health and social care system in Cornwall has the right people in place to improve the situation and that by working closer together the NHS and the council can help.
"There is really strong partnership working here, I can't tell you how supported I feel from colleagues in the NHS. There is work for us to do in terms of fully understanding our roles and responsibilities and it is important that we do that".
She added that there was also an important role for the voluntary sector to play and said that the move to encourage more people to provide support for vulnerable people in the community was "realistic".
"Coming into Cornwall there is a well developed and established voluntary sector here and there is some really good work going on to use that and it is about how we build on some of that to support people to access something that really matters to them. It is a massive opportunity for us".