Strategies, policies and procedures

Our market position statement is designed to:

• Inform providers, and future providers, of adult social care services about the existing and future demand for care services
• Be a starting point for discussions between us and providers about how we can best work together to shape a diverse, flexible market for care, which achieves the best possible outcomes for Shropshire residents, in line with our key principles
• Be updated on a regular basis, as a live, transparent resource for providers, where market information, including best practice, can be pooled and shared

The 2023/24 market position statement is due to be published in April 2023.

This is a new take on our Local Account for Adult Social Care. We've tried to include in this publication a wide range of people who are involved with adult social care in Shropshire, and were keen to avoid ourselves being the main character in the story.

This strategy underpins everything we do.

Our Shropshire Autism Strategy is in the process of being updated to reflect changes in national strategy.

An updated five year National Strategy for Autistic Children, Young People & Adults was released in 2021 addressing an all-age approach covering the period 2021-2026.

The national strategy focuses on the need to succeed in improving autistic people’s and their families’ lives, working collaboratively to implement these actions across national and local government, the NHS, the education system, the criminal and youth justice systems, and with autistic people and their families – six priority areas have been highlighted as follows:

• Improving understanding and acceptance of autism in society
• Improving autistic children and young people’s access to education, and supporting positive transitions into adulthood
• Supporting more autistic people into employment
• Tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people
• Building the right support in the community and supporting people in in-patient care
• Improving support in the criminal and youth justice systems

In Shropshire we're working locally to review our priorities against the national agenda, and in doing so engaging with all age-groups; autistic people of all ages; parents; carers; families; professionals across health, education and council; businesses and organisations to determine the key areas of need and challenge that need to be addressed.

We continue to strive to improve the lives of people with an autistic spectrum condition, and their families.

The result of this work will be an updated Shropshire Autism Strategy with clear and measurable targets to positively impact the lives of autistic people and their families.

If you'd like any further information on the progress we're making, or would like to know how to become more involved in the development of the strategy, please email Pip Long, commissioning officer (autism) Pip.Long@Shropshire.gov.uk or asc.commissioning@shropshire.gov.uk

For autism support and assessments please take a look at the following:

• For ages 0-5 years – Shropshire Community Health Trust
• For ages 5 – 18 years – BeeU, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT)
• For adults – Shropshire Autism Hub/A4U - first line of enquiry for adults wanting an autism assessment. The Shropshire Autism Hub provides pre-assessment support and organises training, activities and social groups

Further support can be found on the Healthier Together Website, and Autism West Midlands provides online training resources, one-to-one support and social events.

This strategy is part of the following ‘golden thread’, so that all plans and strategies link:

• Partnership plans and strategies
• Shropshire Council corporate plan
• Vision and strategy for adult social care
• Service/team plans
• Individual staff appraisal objectives

This strategy has been developed by the Shropshire Autism Partnership Board. Its purpose is to provide the strategic direction for statutory health and social care organisations in Shropshire, with regard to supporting adults and young people with an autistic spectrum condition.

There are approximately 1,400 adults living with a learning disability in Shropshire who we want to enable to engage and participate meaningfully in all aspects of our community. The learning disability strategy explains how we do this.