Social Care Governance within a Community Team Setting Available to Purchase

The Health and Personal Social Services, Improvement and Regulation (NI) Order 2003, provides a legal framework that places a statutory requirement on health and personal social services in Northern Ireland to provide good quality services. Social care governance underpins the execution of this requirement, and relates to the delivery of safe and appropriate services for people with learning disabilities. The Directors of Social Services asked DHSSPSNI to fund a project worker through the Clinical and Social Care Governance Support Team to take this work forward. They asked for learning materials to be developed. A partnership was formed with the Social Care Institute for Excellence, and they provided the knowledge base for the workbook. The process of developing the workbook involved working with five pilot sites throughout Northern Ireland. The community learning disability team based in the Newry and Mourne Locality of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust participated in the pilot. This paper details the experiences of the team, the work done to date and the ongoing process of maintaining a focus on governance issues.