Actions and Next Steps
The Local Authority (and anyone representing the Local Authority) has a duty under Section 4 of the Care Act to either provide directly, or provide access to a range of information and advice relating to adult Care and Support, including financial advice. This duty applies equally in respect of all local residents regardless of whether the person/carer with Care and Support needs is known to, lives in, or is already receiving services from the Local Authority.
See: Providing Information and Advice to read more about what the Care Act says about the duty to provide information and advice, including how information and advice should be provided and the specific information and advice requirements around finances.
Online
Click here to access the Adult Social Care information and advice pages of our website.
Citizens Advice Bureau
The following are a list of Citizens Advice Bureaus in Cumberland, and details of their drop in sessions:
Citizens Advice Allerdale
Town Hall
Oxford Street
Workington
CA14 2RS
Telephone advice line: 01900 604735
(Drop in: 9.30am-12.30pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
Carlisle
4th Floor Broadacre House
Lowther Street
Carlisle
CA3 8DA
(Drop in: 1pm-6pm Monday, 10am-3.30pm Wednesday and Friday)
General telephone advice: 03444 111 444
Money Advice: 03300 563 037
Age UK
Older adults and their carers can access information and advice, as well as a range of services from Age UK. Use the details below to find out where the nearest office is in your area.
West Cumberland
Tel: 09443 843 843
Email: info@ageukwestcumbria.org.uk
Carlisle
Tel: 01228 536673 (Carlisle)
Email: admin@ageukcarlisleandeden.org.uk
Carers
Carers can also access bespoke information and advice from Carers Support Cumberland. Use the details below to find out where your nearest offices are:
Tel: 0844 384 3230
Email: adviceline@carlislecarers.co.uk
Financial Assessment
Click here to see the answers to some frequently asked questions around financial assessment, including questions relating to Disabled Facilities Grants.
Note: This FAQ is based on statutory duties and powers and does not reflect Cumberland's policy to provide all carers services on a non-chargeable basis.
You may also find the dedicated pages of our website useful. Click here to access them.
Sometimes it is helpful to contact a well-known national organisation with a dedicated information and advice service or help-line. See: National Organisations with Information and Advice Helplines for details of some national organisations offering this service.
Some national organisations do not have dedicated information and advice services but can still provide such support upon request. See: National Contacts for Adult Care and Support for a wider range of useful national contacts for adult Care and Support.
Information and advice must be provided in an accessible way so that the person/carer for whom it is intended can best understand and make use of it.
If you feel the person/carer for whom the information and advice is intended will need support to understand it then you should:
- Consider whether the person has anyone appropriate who can help them to understand it;
- Consider any steps that you can take to support them to understand it (for example talking through the information over the telephone or summarising it in a simpler format); and
- Consider the benefit of independent advocacy.
Under the Care Act the Local Authority has a duty to not only provide information and advice where it is needed, but to ensure that the information and advice it provides has been effective.
Therefore, when information and advice has been provided you should agree appropriate arrangements to follow up with the person to whom it was given in order to review how effective it has been.
The timescales for this follow up should be agreed with the person/carer to whom the information and advice was given and should reflect the individual circumstances and level of risk.
Where you are making arrangements for someone else to follow up on the information and advice you have given (rather than following up on it yourself) you must make sure that you have recorded this in a way that will ensure the person follows up on it at the agreed time.
The Local Authority has a common law and legal duty to safeguard the confidentiality of all personal information. As an employee of the Local Authority you are bound contractually to respect the confidentiality of any information that you may come into contact with. Under no circumstances should such information be divulged or passed to any persons or organisation in any form unless you have authorisation to do so.
All information sharing that takes place must be in line with data protection legislation (namely the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018) and local policy.
The Caldicott Principles must also be regarded. The Caldicott Principles are a set of principles that apply to the use of confidential information within health and social care organisations and when such information is shared with other organisations and between individuals, both for individual care and for other purposes. For further information, see: The Caldicott Principles.
Any unauthorised disclosure of confidential information may result in disciplinary action of individual prosecution under the Data Protection Act 2018.
For further information and guidance see: Providing Information about a Person or Carer
It is important that the person/carer making contact speaks to the right practitioner at the right time. Sometimes you may find that you are not the most appropriate practitioner to manage the contact.
When the person/carer making the contact requests specifically to speak to or be contacted by a particular practitioner you should establish as quickly as possible whether the contact should be forwarded to that practitioner.
You should check available systems to establish whether the person/carer is allocated to the practitioner they have requested to speak to.
You should not transfer a telephone call to a named worker if it is clear that the worker is not allocated to the person. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person/carer as they will not be speaking to the right person/carer to resolve the contact.
If the practitioner is not available
If the practitioner is not available you should try and establish when they may become available by looking at any electronic calendars they use or speaking with a colleague or manager who may know.
If you know when the practitioner is likely to become available you should:
- Inform the person/carer of this;
- Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and confirming the information given to the person/carer about when to expect a call back;
- Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required should the practitioner be unavailable for more than a few hours;
- Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact at the expected time; and
- Make a proportionate record of all the above.
If it is not clear when the practitioner will become available you should:
- Inform the person/carer of this;
- Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and what information has been given to the person;
- Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required; and
- Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
- Make a proportionate record of all the above.
When a written contact is addressed to a named worker you should establish as quickly as possible whether the contact should be forwarded to that practitioner.
You should check available systems to establish whether the person/carer is allocated to the practitioner they have addresses the written contact is to.
You should not transfer a written contact to a named worker if it is clear that the worker is not allocated to the person. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person/carer as they will not be dealing with the right person/carer to resolve the contact.
Before transferring the contact you should:
- Confirm that the practitioner the written communication is being transferred to is available within a reasonable timeframe for the action indicated by the contact, or that you have agreed with a manager how the contact will be managed;
- Where the communication is a letter or an e-mail, whether the practitioner wishes to receive the original contact (if not this should be filed securely); and
- Where a written response confirming the contact has been received is required or requested, agree who will provide this.
The most secure way to transfer a written contact is to send a message to the practitioner alerting them to the contact and where it can be found on the recording system.
Any original copies of e-mails must be sent via internal secure e-mail systems only and any original letters must be sent via internal postal services or secure delivery only.
If the practitioner is not available
If the practitioner is not available you should try and establish when they may become available by looking at any electronic calendars they use or speaking with a colleague or manager who may know.
If the practitioner is not available within a reasonable timeframe for the action indicated by the contact you should:
- Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, where it can be found on the recording system and any action undertaken, including what has been agreed with the person/carer if contact has been made with them;
- Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required and writing any acknowledgement letter to confirm arrival of the contact;
- When the practitioner is not available within any timeframes indicted in the written contact or for more than a few days inform the person making the contact of this;
- Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
- Make a proportionate record of all the above.
There are many kinds of prevention service available. Some are provided by the Local Authority and some are provided by the community or partner organisations, such as health. All available prevention services in the local area should be explored before undertaking a longer term intervention.
Under Section 2 of the Care Act the Local Authority has a duty to prevent needs for Care and Support/Support.
See: Preventing Needs for Care and Support to read more about the duty to prevent needs for Care and Support, including the types of prevention services recognised by the Care Act, when to provide prevention services and how to charge for prevention services.
If, as part of any conversation or information gathering you become concerned that a vulnerable adult or child is experiencing, or at risk of abuse or neglect you must respond appropriately by raising a concern.
See Keeping People Safe, which also includes information about how to raise a children's safeguarding concern.
If you are concerned that an adult or child is in imminent danger from abuse or neglect, or that a criminal act has taken place you should contact the police by dialing 999.
Whenever the outcome of a contact or referral is that the person/carer will be involved in any adult Care and Support process (including any assessment, or safeguarding) the Local Authority has a duty under the Care Act to make an independent advocate available to the person/carer when:
- There is no appropriate other person to support and represent them; and
- They feel that the person/carer would experience substantial difficulty being fully involved in the Care and Support process without support.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
See: Advocacy Decision Support Tool.
The Local Authority also has a power (but not a duty) to make advocacy available in other situations on a case by case basis if it deems this appropriate and is able to do so. This could include advocacy to support a person to understand information and advice, or advocacy to support a person to explore possible options available to them.
Having substantial difficulty is not the same as lacking mental capacity.
See: Determining Substantial Difficulty for information about how to determine substantial difficulty.
See the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Resource and Practice Toolkit, with guidance about assessing capacity and making best interest decisions.
An appropriate person for general representation purposes is not the same as an appropriate person for independent advocacy under the Care Act.
See: An Appropriate Other Person for information about the difference and how to establish whether there is already an appropriate person.
The role of an independent advocate appointed under the Care Act is not the same as the role of a general advocate or any other type of advocate (for example an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate or an Independent Mental Health Advocate).
An independent advocate appointed under the Care Act must both facilitate and ensure the involvement of the person with substantial difficulty in the Care and Support process that is taking place.
For information about the ways in which an independent advocate should fulfil their role, see: The Role of an Independent Advocate.
People who lack capacity will likely be legally entitled to advocacy under both the Care Act and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
The Care Act statutory guidance recognises that it would not normally be appropriate or practical for a person to have 2 advocates and gives the Local Authority the responsibility to make a decision about the best type of advocacy support.
There are various factors that should influence this decision (such as existing rapport with an advocate or whether any important decisions are likely to be the outcome of the Care and Support process) and the Local Authority must ensure that whatever it decides, it does not deny the person any of the specialist advocacy skills they need or are entitled to.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
People eligible for an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) under the Mental Health Act 1983 will likely be entitled to advocacy under the Care Act.
The Care Act statutory guidance recognises that it would not normally be appropriate or practical for a person to have 2 advocates and gives the Local Authority the responsibility to make a decision about the best type of advocacy support.
There are various factors that should influence this decision (such as existing rapport with an advocate or the likely outcome of the Care and Support process) and the Local Authority must ensure that whatever it decides, it does not deny the person any of the specialist advocacy skills they need or are entitled to.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
The advocacy referral can be made at any time and should be made without delay as soon as the duty applies.
People First has been providing independent advocacy in Cumberland for over 25 years and are the providers commissioned by Cumberland County Council to provide both Care Act Advocacy and IMCA.
To make a referral or for more information, please visit wearepeoplefirst.co.uk.
Carlisle Eden are commissioned to provide Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA).
Regardless of whether or not independent advocacy is available in the local area the duty to provide it still applies. A failure to do so is a breach of this duty and of the law. It is the role of commissioners to ensure that advocacy services are in place and available when required, and it is the role of practitioners to make timely referrals to advocates to prevent unnecessary delays in the meeting of its duty.
If you are aware that advocacy support is required and is not yet available you must not proceed to carry out any Care and Support process until it is in place.
In some circumstances urgent interim measures may need to be agreed without an advocate in place in order to reduce immediate risk to the person/carer from inaction. However, Care and Support processes that will decide long term and important decisions must not be carried out without advocacy support.
The duty upon the Local Authority is to make independent advocacy support available to any person/carer who requires it. Once made available the duty is met.
If a person/carer decides that they do not wish to engage in the advocacy support that has been made available to them they do not have to do so, but the Local Authority must still provide it.
The Local Authority is expected under the Care Act to support the person/carer to understand the role of an advocate and promote its benefit to them so as to reduce the likelihood that they will not engage.
When a decision is made to allocate for a needs assessment or for further intervention, sometimes it becomes clear that this work would be better carried out or led by a different service area or team. For example:
- If the person/carer has multiple needs that cross into more than one service area and it is felt that a practitioner working in a different area would possess more expertise; or
- If the person/carer was referred to a long term intervention team but after consultation it is felt that a prevention service may be more appropriate.
Any process for transferring a person's/carer’s case between service areas or teams should be as simple and seamless as possible. It should involve the person/carer and the potential services with the aim of reaching a shared agreement. Any transfer should not negatively impact the person/carer or put them at risk through the delay of any Care and Support/Support needs being met.
Though not a requirement, it would be prudent to apply the same criteria when deciding the most appropriate service that the Care Act requires to be applied when deciding the most appropriate worker:
- The views and wishes of the person/carer about which service/team would best support them must be regarded;
- The service/team must possess the skills, knowledge and competence to carry out the anticipated Care and Support functions; and
- The service/team must possess the skills, knowledge and competence required to work with the particular person/carer in question.
tri.x as developed a tool that can be used a required to support consistent decision making about team suitability.
See: Team Suitability Decision Support Tool.
The service area or team receiving the case should make effective use of the information gathered thus far and not make the person/carer (or anyone else previously consulted) repeat information unnecessarily.
Sometimes there may be a clear benefit to a joint intervention with another service area, team or professional. The Care Act recognises this and permits the Local Authority to make any arrangements it deems appropriate in order to facilitate joint working with others.
Where the Local Authority requests another party to work jointly in some way to benefit the person with Care and Support needs (or carer with Support needs) that party has a duty to co-operate with the request (unless by doing so they will be prevented from carrying out their own duties under the Care Act or other legislation).
For further information about the duty to co-operate under the Care Act, see: Co-Operation.
Any decision to request joint work should be made with the person/carer(or their representative)/carer. Where the person with Care and Support needs lacks capacity to provide consent to joint work decisions should be made in their best interests.
Joint work requests should be made in the manner preferred by the service or team to which the request is being made. This may or may not take the form of a referral.
The request should explain clearly the nature of the joint work required and any specific skills, knowledge and competence requirements of the practitioner to support allocation.
When you have been asked to work jointly with a colleague in adult Care and Support or in another organisation (such as health or housing) you should contact the person/service you will be working jointly with to:
- Confirm the outcome of the referral; and
- Provide a proposed timeframe for allocation (where allocation is appropriate).
If there are likely to be delays in allocation and commencement of joint work the person who requested the joint work will need to:
- Consider whether to proceed with their intervention; or
- Await allocation of practitioner.
It is the responsibility of the person requesting joint work to make this decision (in agreement with the person and any carer) and to take steps to ensure that any urgent needs for Care and Support are met.
When you have been allocated and asked to work jointly with another service, or professional you should contact them to confirm your involvement and discuss the most effective way to work together. The things you should establish include:
- The work they are doing/will be doing/have done and whether they have any information that you need to know or can use to avoid duplication;
- Whether there are opportunities to co-ordinate systems and processes and, if so how this will be managed;
- What the expectations are in terms of joint-working (for example will you be expected to carry out a joint assessment, meet with the person together, produce joint records or just consult and share information);
- What the anticipated outcome of the joint work is (for example joint funding of support, on-going joint-work to monitor);
- What does the person with care and support needs (or carer with Support needs) know about the joint-work to be carried out (and if they don't know who and how should this be explained);
- Who will be the primary contact for the person (or their representative)/carer to go to with any queries; and
- Who will be responsible for communicating progress and decisions to the person.
See: Joint Work for further practice guidance about effective joint working.
If there are likely to be delays in your commencement of joint work the person/carer who requested the joint work will need to:
- Consider whether to proceed with their intervention; or
- Await your availability.
It is the responsibility of the person/carer requesting joint work to make this decision (in agreement with the person/carer and any carer) and to take steps to ensure that any urgent needs for Care and Support are met.
Some areas of joint work are specialist or non-frequent in nature. The procedures for these pieces of work can be found in the Specialist and Universal Procedures section. The following are examples of the procedures that can be found there:
- NHS Continuing Healthcare assessments;
- Continuity of Care;
- Cross Border Placements.
Carrying out joint work or assessment
To find out about carrying out joint work or assessment, and recording joint work or assessment click here.
Under the Care Act, when a person/carer is already receiving Care and Support from the Local Authority they may request a change to their Care and Support/Support Plan at any time and the Local Authority must consider the request. Where the request is deemed reasonable the Local Authority has a duty to review the plan.
The review is the mechanism by which the need for a revision is determined. As such, under the Care Act a Care and Support/Support Plan can only be revised following a review.
Where a change is requested to a plan and there is no planned review scheduled consideration should be given to arranging an unplanned review. Any review must be proportionate to the needs of the person/carer and undertaken in a timely way so as to reduce the risk of a crisis developing and needs not being met.
If the person/carer has an allocated worker this person should carry out the review, unless the review is urgent and the worker is unavailable.
Before transferring the review request you should confirm that the practitioner the review request is being transferred to is available.
If the practitioner is not available you should speak with a manager to establish whether:
- The request should still be transferred to the allocated worker to action when they become available;
- Alternative arrangements should be made to carry out the review.
Where the information gathered at contact suggests there has been no change in the person's/carer's needs, and that a change to the personal budget amount is not required it may be possible to complete a 'light touch' review without further allocation.
John has support from a domiciliary care agency on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday before he goes to work. His employer is going to change his days of work and John needs to change his Care and Support Plan to reflect the new days that he is going to be supported.
When the information gathered at contact suggests there has been a change in need or circumstance, and that a change in the personal budget amount is required any review carried out is likely to lead to a proportionate reassessment of need. Because this is a longer term intervention allocation for this should be considered.
John has support from a domiciliary care agency on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday before he goes to work. He has sought reduced hours at work because his health condition has deteriorated and he often feels too tired to work. He no longer requires support in the morning as often, but feels he now requires additional support in the evenings and to prepare his meals.
Regular proportionate reviews of the reablement plan should be incorporated into any reablement service provided. They are essential to ensure that the service is working as intended, and to make changes required quickly to promote and optimise independent functioning.
The review mechanism in reablement must be responsive and consider any need to hold a review of the plan outside of any scheduled review:
- Whenever the person whose plan it is request it;
- Whenever a carer of the person whose plan it is requests it;
- Whenever the service providing the reablement requests it; and
- Whenever new information is provided that indicates a review would be beneficial in optimising reablement.
If the person, carer or anyone else request a review of the reablement plan this must be considered. The Care Act permits anyone to make a request for any type of review and places a duty on the Local Authority to carry out a review whenever it is deemed reasonable to do so.
Click here to access the procedures for carrying out a reablement review, including how to monitor reablement, the review conversation, recording a review and revising a reablement Plan.
Not everyone contacts the Local Authority in a timely way so as to allow for an assessment and exploration of options to take place prior to any initial decisions being made about the need for Care and Support/Support.
For example, some people only approach the Local Authority when they are in a time of crisis, high risk or when there is a sudden or unexpected change in their Wellbeing.
In these cases there may appear to be an urgent need for support that cannot wait for an assessment or review process to be carried out.
The Care Act recognises this occurrence and gives the Local Authority powers to meet such needs without having carried out a formal assessment process.
To see what the Care Act says about meeting urgent needs without an assessment or review, see: The Power to Meet Needs.
Having the power to meet needs without an assessment or review means that the Local Authority can decide whether or not to do so, based on the available information and specific circumstances of the person/carer and their situation.
Under the Care Act, the Local Authority can put any interim or urgent measures in place that it deems appropriate to meet the needs of the person/carer and manage the situation. This can range from a small number of domiciliary care visits to a stay in residential accommodation.
The same legal considerations apply when meeting urgent needs as they do when meeting non-urgent needs:
- The impact on the person's/carer’s individual wellbeing;
- Whether any preventative service can be provided that will delay, reduce or prevent the need for Care and Support/Support;
- Whether information and advice can be provided to support the person to find their own solution, or to delay, reduce or prevent the need for Care and Support/Support.
It is vital that you understand your duties in relation to the above. Please use the links below to access further information as required.
- Promoting Individual Wellbeing for information about the duty to promote individual wellbeing;
- Preventing Needs for Care and Support for information about the duty to prevent, reduce or delay needs;
- Providing Information and Advice.
In addition, you should be mindful that nobody has yet assessed (or reassessed) the needs of the person/carer and you may be relying on historical information or information from sources currently under significant strain or pressure to act. As such the information presented may or may not be an accurate reflection of the person's needs following an assessment.
Interim support should therefore only be seen as a temporary measure to reduce risk of harm and support the person/carer to a place in time where a needs assessment can be carried out and long term options explored and agreed with them. As such, you should be cautious about providing interim Care and Support/Support that may be problematic to cease following assessment.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support consistent decision making about the provision of urgent or interim support.
Wherever possible, every conversation with a person should be from a strengths perspective. This means that before you talk about service solutions to the presenting issue you must support the person/carer to explore whether there is:
- Anything within their own power that they can do to help themselves; or
- Anything within the power of their family, friends or community that they can use to help themselves.
A strengths based approach is empowering for the person/carer and gives them more control over their situation and how best to resolve any issues in the best way for them. The end result may still be that the Local Authority intervenes with an assessment or other support, but this decision will have been reached knowing that it is the most proportionate response available.
Adopting a strengths based approach involves:
- Taking a holistic view of the person or carers needs in the context of their wider support network;
- Helping the person/carer to understand their strengths and capabilities within the context of their situation;
- Helping the person/carer to understand and explore the support available to them in the community;
- Helping the person/carer to understand and explore the support available to them through other networks or services (e.g. health);
- Exploring some of the less intrusive/intensive ways the Local Authority may be able to help (such as through prevention services or signposting).
SCIE have produced clear and practical guidance around how to use a strengths based approach in practice. See: Care Act Guidance on strengths-based approaches.
Note: SCIE requires a login to access resources, but any social care practitioner can create one quickly and easily.
All funding requests for urgent and interim support should be made in line with local processes and guidance.
It can be difficult to make a decision about the level of funding required to meet the urgent or interim Care and Support/Support needs because:
- There will be no personal budget allocated to the person/carer; or
- There will be a personal budget but this will not be based on their current needs.
The Care Act does not discuss or set funding limitations in relation to the provision of any Care and Support/Support. This includes urgent and interim Care and Support. Instead, the golden rule of the Care Act when making any funding decision is that 'the amount of funding agreed must be sufficient to meet the needs that are to be met at that time'. Decisions must also be made in a way to ensure that the person/carer will be satisfied the process was fair and robust.
Factors other than sufficiency that must be considered when making funding decisions are:
- The views and wishes of the person/carer about how their needs should be met;
- The availability of other potential options in the marketplace; and
- The cost of available suitable services in the marketplace.
Other factors that should be considered are:
- The complexity of the person's needs;
- The level of risk/sense of urgency; and
- Whether the practitioner requesting the funding has provided relevant information and advice, whether they have explored prevention services that may be appropriate and whether they have explored how the person's/carer's own networks of support could help; and
- Where the person is not ordinarily resident; if they receive Care and Support already in another Authority the nature of the Care and Support they receive.
When making a funding decision, the Local Authority is also permitted under the Care Act to consider how to balance its legal requirement to maintain universal services to the entire local population with the power to meet urgent needs of a person or carer. In doing so it must:
- Not base it's decision on finances alone;
- Consider things on a case-by-case basis; and
- Not set arbitrary limits (fixed amounts for a particular type of need or service).
The outcome of the funding decision should be communicated to the person/carer at the earliest opportunity. The method of communication should reflect that requested by the person/carer and any specific communication needs they may have. For the purposes of the Care Act communication about the outcome of a funding decision is subject to the same requirements as the provision of information and advice, and the duty to make it accessible therefore applies equally.
Where communication is provided by telephone a follow up letter confirming the conversation and the funding decision should be sent to the person/carer as a formal record.
When communicating the outcome you should include the following information:
- The funding decision itself;
- The rationale for the decision;
- Any information and advice relating to adult Care and Support, and the prevention, delay or reduction of needs;
- What will happen next and the timeframes involved;
- How to complain about any aspect of the decision or proposed outcome.
Any funding decision rationale should be clearly recorded in line with local Case Recording Standards.
The Local Authority is not required to record urgent and interim support on a Care and Support/Support Plan because:
- The support is being provided under the Local Authority's powers (as opposed to duties);
- The person/carer has not yet been assessed (or reassessed); and
- There has been no decision about eligible needs.
However, the following must be clearly recorded:
- The urgent or interim support being provided;
- The contribution to the cost of the support being made by the Local Authority;
- The contribution being made by the person; with Care and Support needs;
- The duration of the support;
- How the support will be reviewed;
- What outcomes the support aims to achieve; and
- The next steps, including timeframes for any assessment.
Under the Care Act the process of arranging to meet urgent and interim Care and Support needs is the same as arranging to meet needs agreed through a non-urgent Care and Support Planning process.
The Commissioning and Brokerage Procedures (Arranging Support, Services or Equipment) Procedures include the processes for using any brokerage service to commission a service, commissioning Care and Support services directly, and how to record the services that are being provided on the system.
The Local Authority is permitted under the Care Act to charge any person for Care and Support (including Care and Support provided on an urgent basis) unless:
- It chooses not to; or
- The person has been financially assessed as having insufficient funds to contribute; or
- The support being provided is reablement (up to 6 weeks is non-chargeable); or
- The support being provided is equipment (up to the cost of £1000 is non-chargeable).
Note: In Cumberland carer's are not charged for services they receive, but people with Care and Support needs are subject to a financial assessment.
For further information about charging for all services under the Care Act, see: Power of the Local Authority to Charge.
See the Financial Assessment Procedure for further guidance.
Where urgent support is provided to a person who is not ordinarily resident (or to a carer when the cared for person is not ordinarily resident) contact should be made at the earliest opportunity to the Local Authority in which they live to inform them of the intention to meet an urgent need.
Where the person/carer is already in support of a service from the other Local Authority information should be gathered to support any decisions made about which support should be provided.
Agreement should be reached with the other Local Authority about how any urgent Care and Support/Support services will be monitored, when they intend to assess for eligible needs and how reimbursement of costs incurred can be sought.
tri.x has developed a tool to support decision making around ordinary residence.
See: Ordinary Residence Decision Support Tool.
Also see the Ordinary Residence Procedure for further information.
Where the outcome decision is for the person's/carer’s case to be allocated to an individual worker to carry out an assessment, review or further intervention this allocation should take place in a timely way so as to:
- Avoid any unnecessary delays to the person/carer;
- Reduce the risk of a deterioration in the situation; and
- Maximise the use of measures that will prevent, delay or reduce needs.
Where there are a significant number of people awaiting allocation for further work or assessment there should be a fair and consistent prioritisation process in place that takes into account:
- The level of risk;
- The level of need;
- Current support in place and the sustainability/effectiveness of this;
- The urgency;
- The likelihood of deterioration; and
- The potential for fluctuation.
An element of monitoring should be incorporated into any allocation process to ensure that you remain aware of every person's/carer's situation and are able to respond appropriately to any changes or need to re-prioritise allocation.
The Care Act recognises that each worker (regardless of whether or not they have a professional qualification) will possess specific skills, knowledge and experience that will enable them to carry out different Care and Support functions or work with particular people well.
Because of this there is no expectation that a particular role should carry out a particular function; instead the Local Authority should allocate tasks to the most appropriate person/carer for the job.
Allocation decisions should take into account:
- The skills, knowledge and experience of the worker in carrying out the function or process required;
- The skills, knowledge and experience of the worker in working with the particular needs of the person/carer (for example health needs or communication needs); and
- The views and wishes of the person/carer themselves in relation to the skills required of the worker and who they feel would best support them.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support allocation decisions.
See: Allocation Support Tool.
Direct support refers to the range of ways that an Occupational Therapy practitioner works directly with a person or a carer to ensure safe and effective use of equipment, aids or an adaptation.
Direct support includes:
- Training of informal and paid carers in the safe and proper use of equipment; and
- Supporting the person to safely and confidently use equipment or adapt to their environment after an adaptation.
Direct support:
- Builds the person's confidence to use equipment and access their adapted environment;
- Builds the confidence of any carers to use the equipment;
- Ensures that people using the equipment are suitably skilled to do so;
- Ensures that people using the equipment know when it may be faulty;
- Reduces the risk of unsafe use of the equipment;
- Reduces the risk of injury from unsafe or improper use of the equipment;
- Maximises the effective use of the equipment or adapted environments to promote independence or prevent, reduce and delay needs.
If direct support is required following contact or referral you should refer to the direct support procedures by clicking here.
If a request is made for existing equipment to be maintained because it is not operating as it should be you must establish whether the warranty for the equipment is the responsibility of the Local Authority, a private manufacturer or the person.
This is likely to depend on a range of factors, such as:
- How long ago the equipment was installed;
- The details of any manufacturer's warranty; and
- Whether the equipment is part of standard stock held in Local Authority equipment stores.
You should familiarise yourself with available local guidance that confirms who is responsible for maintaining or repairing equipment in a range of circumstances.
Where equipment maintenance is not the responsibility of the Local Authority you must remain mindful that meeting the person's needs remains the duty of the Local Authority at all times. There could therefore be a need to support the person to get the equipment maintained (for example by contacting the repair service on their behalf) or to provide interim equipment or an alternative measure to meet the need whilst any equipment maintenance is carried out.
Last Updated: November 4, 2024
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