LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL
ADULT SOCIAL CARE
GUIDANCE FOR CARE MANAGERS
ON COMPLETING THE SELF DIRECTED SUPPORT FORMS
VERSION 1 - Final
April 2010
CONTENTS PAGE
1. Jargon buster...... 3
2. Introduction...... 6
3. Summary of the process (Including Individual Budgets)...... 6
4. Community Care Assessment...... 8
4.1 Purpose of Community care assessment
4.2 Process of completing the community care assessment
4.3 Prompts for completing the community care assessment
5. My Support Plan...... 15
5.1Purpose of My Support Plan
5.2 Process of completing the My Support Plan
5.3 Prompts for completing the My Support Plan
5.4 My support Plan and risk management
6. Review form...... 21
6.1 Prompts for completing the Review form
7. Reference Points……………………………………………………………………22
Appendix
Appendix 1 - Community Care Assessment form
Appendix 2 - Community Care Assessment eligibility guidelines
Appendix 3 - Spend Guidance
Appendix 4 - My support plan form
Appendix 5 - Review form
Appendix 6 - Individual Budgets & support with parenting role guidance
1. Jargon Buster
We know that some of the words and phrases that are being used in connection with the transformation of adult social care may be new to you and could be confusing. Our jargon buster will explain these for you.
Adult Social Care Transformation
The name of the programme of work to change the way adult social care services are managed in Leicester.
Advocate
Someone who supports the individual to speak for themselves or who speaks for them.
Within adult social care transformation, an advocate will help a service user or carer to have their say and ensure that their choices and needs are met.
Assessment
An assessment, which can also be known as an 'assessment of need' looks at an individual's needs to identify the support that they require and which are most important. It also shows the risks that someone would face if no help was given.
Brokerage/Broker
Someone or an organisation that helps a service user or carer to plan and arrange support and services to achieve maximum independence. This is usually a separate service to care management and completed by someone else other than the care manager.
Care Manager
A care manager is a professional who will assess the individuals need and help an individual manage their. For example, they may be a social worker or community care worker.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England.
Carer
A person of any age who provides unpaid support to family, a partner or friends in need of help because he or she has a long-term illness or disability.
Carers Assessment
This looks at the help the carer is providing and how he or she may be assisted to continue caring.
Co-production
Where a service provider, such as the council or an agency, works with a service user to design the package of care or to plan, design, and deliver services.
Customer
Someone who receives services from the council or another provider.
Direct Payment
Cash payments made directly to service users or carers so that they can arrange their own support and care services to meet agreed outcomes.
Individual Budget
The amount of money allocated to a service user to spend on support services to meet their care needs and achieve their outcomes. It includes funding for other services, such as health care and housing related support, as well as social care services.
Models of disability
The Medical Model is the traditional view of disability. This sees impairment as being the problem.
The Social Model sees the person as disabled by society. The impairment is not in itself a problem, rather society’s view of it. Leicester City Council adopts the social model of disability
Outcomes
Outcomes are the result of care and support. The transformation will see a move away from solely meeting the needs of the service user to also looking at achieving outcomes that help them to be more independent.
Person Centred Planning
Person Centred Planning puts people at the centre of their support and helps them to identify needs and aspirations making sure the support is designed specifically for individuals.
Personal Budget
The amount of money allocated to a service user to spend on social care support services to meet their care needs and achieve their outcomes.
Personalisation
The government's word for the new way of arranging services, giving people choice and control over their care and support.
Putting People First
A joint statement made in December 2007 by the Department of Health, government departments, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), other care providers and the Local Government Association (LGA). Putting People First sets out a shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care.
Resource Allocation System (RAS)
The system that is used to decide how much each person’s Personal Budget will be.
Self Directed Support
Allows people to be in control of the support they need to live their life by managing their own support, with the help of family, friends or advocates if needed.
Service User
Someone who receives services from the council or another provider.
Support Plan
A document that shows how an individual’s support needs will be met. A support plan is written following an assessment between the council and the individual.
2. Introduction
This guidance is produced to assist Care Managers undertaking the core assessment and planning tools for community care.
This guide details:
a) The Community Care Assessment
b) My Support Plan
c) Review Form
These forms should be used for all cases going through the social care assessment and planning process.
To complement this guidance you can also find further practice guidance within the Community Care Assessment and Management policy and practice guidance.
3. Summary of the process
A new set of forms will be used for Assessment and planning purposes. When undertaking the assessment commissioners will use the Community Care Assessment form (Jan 2010) Version 1 which includes a mediated self-assessment questionnaire. Following this in some cases a weekly Individual Resource Allocation is then calculated in the form of hours. ‘My Support Plan’ is then completed instead of a Care Plan. ‘My Support Plan’ is outcome focussed. The service user/worker will identify outcomes to be achieved from the support that they will receive.
The following chart shows the process of completing each area of assessment and planning.
The process of commissioning remains the same in that the worker gains approval from their manager for the assessment, the Individual resource allocation and the support plan, however it differs from the traditional way of working because the approval of the funding is agreed before the support plan is completed.
4. Community Care Assessment
4.1 Purpose of Community care assessment
A new set of forms will be used for Assessment and planning purposes. When undertaking the assessment commissioners will use the IB Community Care Assessment form (Jan 10) which includes a self-assessment questionnaire.
The purpose of this form is to:
a) Provide an objective link between social care needs and FACS
eligibility.
b) Provide information to help calculate the individuals weekly Resource Allocation.
c) Collect information on outcomes to be achieved through any funded support and linked quality of life improvements.
A Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is a way for the council to understand what support a person may need and identify the risks should they not receive support. It also considers need against the national eligibility framework (Fair Access to Care Services). The FAC’s level is determined by the responses ticked and therefore makes the FAC’s eligibility decision more transparent and equitable.
The SAQ will also provide information that will be used to calculate how much money they will receive.
It is a tick box question and answer form. It is designed to make the individual think about different areas of their life and what level of care and support they need to achieve maximum independence.
4.2 Process of completing the community care assessment
There is a specific Community Care Assessment form (See Appendix 1).
This form should be completed for all new referrals and for existing service users if needing Re-assessment.
The majority of the form is made up of a mediated questionnaire which the individual, with support where necessary, should complete.
Most of the questionnaire is in a tick box form where individuals are asked to either identify a level of need in relation to specific tasks or tick the most appropriate statement that relates to their situation.
Following completion by the individual, you are required to record on each tick box part of the questionnaire your views on the person needs. This can be done after the individual has completed the questionnaire and after you have obtained any further information on the person’s needs from other professionals.
Once you have recorded your views, there may be some differences to the levels of need identified by the individual. In these cases you should go back to the individual to seek agreement on the most appropriate level of need in relation to a task or statement that should apply to them. Where agreement cannot be reached on specific areas, this should be recorded at the end assessment form.
Where there is an urgent need to arrange support or services then a “skeleton” assessment can be completed. This should be followed as soon as possible by a fully completed assessment.
4.3 Prompts for completing the community care assessment
Section / Purpose/PromptFront page / Record of general information about individual, reason for referral and people consulted during assessment.
There is now a question regarding sexual orientation. This will be a new area for workers to gain information. The responses from questions c, and f may support you to answer this question.
a) Who is completing this questionnaire? / Tick the box to describe who is completing the assessment questionnaire.
b) What communication needs should we know about? / The individual and you will need to think about the communication that people may need due to any visual impairment, hearing impairments, learning disability, language spoken or written, speech difficulties, memory etc.
You will need state things like;
- Needs information in font 20 due to visual impairment
- Need to sit on the service users left hand side as they are hard of hearing in their right ear
- Gujarati is their first spoken language etc
c) What cultural, religious, spiritual, of lifestyle needs should we know about? / It is important that we think about area such as
- Does the person attend or need support to attend places of worship
- Is their lifestyle relaxed or chaotic
- Does the person enjoy socialising? If so how?
- Who/What is important in their life?
- Do they have any particular beliefs that impact on how they live their
life or how support may need to be provided?
d) What health or mobility issues do you have? / This question is used to find out people’s health and mobility needs.
This is the section when you could write about;
- How people mobilise
- How people transfer
- How people move around their home and outside of their home
- Peoples health needs e.g. need to go for dialysis 3 times a week
- Are there any mobility aids that people use already
- You could write about peoples diagnosis and how this affects them
- Balance difficulties
e) Are there any important life events that you want to tell us about? / There may be important life events that have occurred and are important to know to help us to support the person better.
These could be things like;
- Recent death of a relative
- Losing their job
- The move from their home in to residential care
- Recent diagnosis or change in condition etc
f) Who do you live with? Include any people or pets that live with you / You or the individual will need to include the names of people that live in the same home and state relationship to the person.
For this question it is also important that you gain information of children in need within the home as this will support you to complete a children’s safeguarding referral or open a children’s CAF referral.
g) What kind of property do you live in and who owns it? / For this question you and the individual could write information regarding;
- the tenure of the property
- Type of property
- General state of repair of the property
- Access in/out/around the property
h) What help do you currently get to meet your care/ support needs? / List all support that the person is getting at the moment.
This includes support that the person may already be receiving from the council, infomal carer, privatly paid support etc
Assessment
Questionnaire:
Tick box questions / 9 questions based on the four areas of determining FACS eligibility- Managing daily routines, Involvement, Health & Safety and Autonomy.
Questions have a tick box format with space to provide additional information at the end of each. Individuals are asked to either identify a level of need in relation to specific tasks or tick the most appropriate statement that relates to their situation.
Following completion by the individual, you are required to record on each tick box part of the questionnaire your views on the person’s needs. This can be done after the individual has completed the questionnaire and after you have obtained any further information on the person’s needs from other professionals.
Question 1 - Making decisions / This part is about being able to decide and put into place important things in their life – like where they live, who supports them, who decide how their money is spent.
In this question you could document whether a Mental Capacity Assessment has been completed. If so, what was the conclusion?,
e.g. Does the person make simple day to day life descisions, but need support with more complex decisions. Do they have fluctuations in their mental health.