Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council – Adults and Children’s Services

Select Committee Member Visit

Service visited: First Contact - Adults, Kingsway House

Dateof visit: 26 October 2016Time of visit: 10.30am

Details of main contact during visit
Name: Jenny Wardle / Rachel Jones
Job Title: Senior Social Worker / Social Worker
What did you see?
First Contact is the first point of contact between the Local Authority and members of the public, professionals and other agencies in relation to any queries and referrals into adult social care services. The Team provides advice and information, sign post to universal services and create referrals directly into social care teams where eligibility criteria is met.
The team consists of a Senior Social Worker, Social Worker, and three full time First Contact Officers. It operates from 8:30 to 5 Monday to Thursday and 8:30 til 4:30 on Fridays.
The team was created in April 2015 as part of implementation of the Care Act. Prior to this all adult care referrals were dealt with via the joint First Contact Team that included both Adults and Children’s Teams.
Who did you talk to – staff / service users / family / carers?
Rachel Jones, Social Workers, and three First Contact Officers .
A note outlining the work of the Team had been prepared in advance and was shared. The details are included in this note.
What were the key issues arising from the visit?
All calls are initially screened at Customer Services (based at Municipal Buildings) and a ‘call back’ request is submitted into the team’s email. The First Contact Officers then telephone the referrer back and gather further information in order to provide appropriate advice, information or refer to the most appropriate service. Where requests are urgent, calls are made directly through to the Team. The Team has two email accounts, one which is secure where referrals and requests for advice/information can be requested from members of the public, professionals and other agencies.
There is a service standard in place whereby clients will be called back within 48 hours, but generally these are achieved on the same day. If clients cannot be reached by phone, First Contact will send them an enquiry letter to see if further assistance is required.
First contact can process referrals into the following teams:
-Adult Social Care team (North & South)
-Learning Disability team
-Affective Disorders team
-Mental Health services for older people team
-Occupational therapy services, North and South
-Multi-Disciplinary Service
-Mental Health access team
-Referrals for carers assessments to the most appropriate adult social care team
-Out of area hospital discharge referrals are processed by First Contact who will refer to the most appropriate team, which can be to the social care assessment teams or the Assessment and reablement team (ART).
- Up until August 2016 all discharges from North Tees and Hartlepool Trust were referred through the Team, but these now go through the new ART (the Team still process any hospital discharges that require a Decision Support Tool (DST) or where long term needs have been identified by ART. )
-All referrals are processed and recorded on Care Director [the Care Management ICT system used by Adult Services]
The Team’s systems record contact with client over time and if no action is taken a note would record the reasons why. This information helps inform future decision making.
All adult safeguarding concerns from members of the public, professionals, providers and other agencies are processed via First Contact. All safeguarding alerts are triaged in order to make decisions regarding the most appropriate course of action, whether this be to refer to care management for assessment or to refer to the adult safeguarding team for further enquires. Safeguarding alerts being raised by staff members within the social care teams are referred to the Safeguarding Team directly by the team managers, though First Contact will take on this role where there is no manager available to process these.
First Contact also need to determine a person’s ‘ordinary residence’ when requests for referrals are being made in order to determine which Local Authority is responsible in providing the service being requested.
An important role at First Contact is to assess whether Advocacy services are required where a person may have ‘substantial difficulty’ in relation to Care Act processes. If a person does not have an ‘appropriate person’ to support them, referrals can be made directly into advocacy services. The Team also need to make judgements where necessary regarding mental capacity and consent to referrals.
There has been an increase in referrals from the Ambulance and Police services, particularly in relation to concerns over self-neglect. In cases of self-neglect the Care Management Teams would undertake the first assessment , and if clients do not engage, consideration would be given to a referral to the Safeguarding Team.
The workload can vary but the Team is generally busier in the winter period.
The Team review referrals submitted by the Emergency Duty Team and other agencies out of hours. Two or more agencies eg police and ambulance may each make referrals if they have had separate involvement with a client independent of each other.
The quality of information on referrals from partner agencies is key and additional information must sometimes be gathered before a decision can be made.
A summary of roles is as follows:
Social Work role:
•Triage of incoming referrals (including safeguarding alerts), decision making in relation to the outcome of referrals and prioritising referrals according to level of risk and wider criteria
•Gather further information to aid triage, including obtaining information from a variety of sources
•Ensure all work is Care Act 2014 compliant, including the provision of information and emphasis on well-being and preventative measures
•Identify/challenge inappropriate referrals and provide information /advice to referrer
•Make judgements where necessary regarding mental capacity/need for advocacy/need for safeguarding referral
•Liaise with team managers/other services regarding referrals to ensure appropriate and timely referrals are made
•Support the role of First Contact Officers when required due to staffing levels (responding to telephone enquiries/sending information)
First Contact Officer role:
•To deal with requests and assessment in relation to adult social care enquires.
•To assess information, applying social care policies and procedures in accordance with the Care Act and other legislation/regulations determine the appropriate pathway for processing individual enquires.
•To liaise and work in collaborative partnership with other agencies.
•To take calls from members of the public and other agencies to offer advice, information or make appropriate referrals.
•To support Social Workers in gathering information in relation to individual enquires to ensure complete information is available to them for assessment of support needs.
•Recording safeguarding alerts from members of the public
Any recommendations / feedback for consideration?
The Team does not often receive feedback in relation to the outcomes for the people it deals with. This is due to the nature of its work as a gateway, with other teams undertake in more in depth work, but team members would appreciate more the impact of its work.
The Team felt they were well resourced and systems were generally working well. One of the First Contact officers is funded on a temporary basis until March and so resource levels will need to be monitored to ensure service delivery is not adversely affected.
Signed: Cllr Houghton, Peter Mennear / Date: 26 October 2016

DATE ISSUED: July 2015 TITLE: Select Committee Member Visits

1