Why CREATE Was Formed

Community Rehabiltitation Employment Assessment Training Enterprise.

CREATE Is an initiative which brings together all mental health day services, provided by both the statutory and voluntary services in City & County Of Swansea. By ‘signing-up’ to a jointly agreed Philosophy Statement and accepting the principle of a ‘one-stop’ referral and assessment process, partners have succeeded in radically streamlining the process of accessing appropriate services, hugely reducing the amount of bureaucracy and paperwork involved, for both the Care Manager and service user.

“Is a joint working partnership involving statutory and voluntary services, committed to providing access to quality services, tailored to meet the needs of individual mental health service users.”

The partnership was established in April 2002, following a joint workshop held between all potential partners. It had been identified that the process of accessing appropriate day services in mental health, particularly where a range of services might be required, could often be a tortuous one, involving duplicated referrals being made by the Care Manager and numerous assessments having to be undertaken by service provider staff and service users. In addition, it had also been identified that there was often unnecessary duplication amongst service areas, with similar activities being offered by a number of providers.

As a result of the above, service managers from the Social Services Department, NHS Trust and a range of voluntary sector providers held a series of workshops to examine the areas of good practice currently available and where the failings and deficits of the services were to be found. The outcome was an agreement that by working collaboratively, there was an opportunity to develop a comprehensive range of services which could complement each other, as opposed to ‘competing’. Whilst recognising that, in order to maintain individual choice, some duplication of activities might be healthy, each service area agreed to concentratre its efforts on offering activities within a specific identified range.

Further agreement was reached on the development of a ‘one-stop’ referral and assessment process, which would allow Care Managers to submit one referral, which would lead to the provision of a single assessment for the service user, which would provide information on, and access to, all available services in the City & County Of Swansea. This process has considerably improved access to services and made the possibility of offering ‘mix & match’ packages of service, tailored to individual need, a reality.

CREATE is managed by a ‘Steering Group’ comprised of representatives from each of the partner organisations and has led to a much more dynamic and collaborative approach to the provision of services. The increased willingness of partners to share ideas and to support colleagues in developing services has been extremely heartening. A joint information video and CD-Rom has been commissioned, for distribution to Care Managers and service users to widen the access to information on services available.

CREATE is a model for joint working which could be replicated in any area of Wales. Our experience has shown that such collaboration highlights the strengths of different approaches to service provision, whilst maximising the opportunities for all areas to develop in a way which is complementary and mutually supportive.