Actions and Next Steps (ICT)
Amendment
In October 2023, information about the Caldicott Principles was added to the section ‘Providing Information about a Person’.
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 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.
Gateshead Council website
There is a range of helpful information and advice resources on the Gateshead Council website:
Adult disability and sensory loss
Adult social care commissioned services
Age UK
Tel: 0191 477 3559
Email: advice@ageukgateshead.org.uk
Financial assessment
Advice about financial assessment can be obtained direct from the Financial Assessment Team.
Tel: 0191 433 2344
Email: financialassessments@gateshead.gov.uk
Specialist information and advice
A range of voluntary agencies in Gateshead provide specialist information and advice for people with specific needs, for example, mental health or sensory needs.
Information about these organisations and how to contact them can be found in the Commissioning, Contracting and Brokerage Procedures.
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.
You can also see the Financial Assessment and Charging FAQ Response Support Tool for the answers to some frequently asked questions around financial assessment, including questions relating to Disabled Facilities Grants.
Information and advice must be provided in an accessible way so that the person for whom it is intended can best understand and make use of it.
If you feel the person 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 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 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 making the contact requests specifically to speak to or be contacted by a particular person 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 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 as they will not be speaking to the right person 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 of this;
- Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and confirming the information given to the person 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 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 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 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 is allocated to the practitioner that the written contact is addressed 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 as they will not be dealing with the right person 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 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 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.
Information about Gateshead prevention services, including how to access them, can be found in the Prevention Services section of the Commissioning, Contracting and Brokerage Procedures.
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 Safeguarding Adults, 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.
Where the outcome decision is for the person's case to be allocated to an individual worker to attend a CHC review this allocation should take place in a timely way so as to:
- Avoid any unnecessary delays to the person;
- 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 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 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 (for example health needs or communication needs); and
- The views and wishes of the person 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.
Last Updated: October 6, 2023
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