Project: FLOW (Flexible Lives for Older Workers)

Giving people a life

Personalised care will be a revolution in the way support is provided to vulnerable people, and brings with it enormous challenges, as well as opportunities, for the homecare profession. With the care workforce disproportionately made up of over 50s, the development of new skills, qualifications and more flexible working methods are at the heart of the Age Concern Milton Keynes-led FLOW project. ESF’s investment is enabling the organisation to reshape its business for long-term sustainability, and at the same time develop and test the potential of a whole new way of delivering public services.

Project feature

Age Concern Milton Keynes (ACMK), with 250 paid staff and 450 volunteers, is one of the largest employers in the city and has most understanding of the needs of older people - both as workers, and as users of care services. Like all care providers, ACMK is confronting the implications of the looming major shift in the delivery of publicly funded care to older and vulnerable people - the move to a personalised, consumer driven approach (see the Ageless At Work Report for more background information).

The project began in the autumn of 2009, and is tackling a number of vital questions:

• How will the move to personalisation affect demand for existing and new services?
• What new skills, ways of working and support will the care workforce need in the new environment?
• How can this change deliver its goal of giving service users more independence and control over their own lives?
• Will the approach adopted by the project provide a model for others to emulate?

The project's approach is to challenge the current ways in which care is delivered and, working with both staff and service users, to imagine new types and combinations of services. The care workforce has on average many years of experience and tried and trusted methods. The goal is to retain existing quality and expertise, whilst introducing an offer that is tailored to deliver the more flexible, individual services which are central to the new system. The approach is highly experimental, and ESF is offering the space for innovation and testing - and the obligation to share the experience. FLOW is clear that the new care system is bound to have an impact across the country, and is committed to learning the lessons and working with others to help make sure that the policy goals of the new system - more flexibility, more independence - are delivered.

The project partnership contains the key strategic players. At the national level, Skills for Care, the sector skills council, brings expertise in skills development and accreditation. Locally, the involvement of Milton Keynes Council and Primary Care Trust means that the funders and custodians of the new system will be able to shape ideas and understand how progress is achieved. Other South East-based partners will be trialling methods related to both the care system and to lessons for work with over 50 employees. Finally, as a benefit of its place in the Innovation Transnational and Mainstreaming (ITM) ESF programme, FLOW will be working with partners in Poland, Italy and Lithuania, bringing important insights particularly into training for care workers and flexible delivery methods.

ESF-Works will be returning to FLOW over time to report on how its ideas and aspirations are working out in practice. FLOW is all about how the 'sharp end' of a major innovation in public service delivery reacts. Many more such changes are likely to be seen over the coming years, as public finances and priorities are reshaped, delivery organisations forced to adapt to new circumstances, and older workers challenged to respond to different working environments. FLOW is about imaging and planning for a new future, about effective ways of working with an older employee group, and about sustainable business models. The project is more than happy to share its experiences to date, and keen to network with others working in the same areas and with the same challenges.

Contact details

Carol Older, Contract Manager
Age Concern Milton Keynes
The Peartree Centre, 1 Chadds Lane, Peartree Bridge, Milton Keynes , MK6 3EB
(01980) 550700
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