English|
In this section
|
January 2003SUPPORTING PEOPLE Trevor Chapman Operations Director We have been receiving enquiries from local authorities about the Funds’ approach to provision that will be made under the Supporting People strategy. At present any provision for clients that is funded by Transitional Housing Benefit is not considered to be part of the social services input towards the £200 minimum contribution, or towards the £665 initial maximum joint package. Our trust deed defines the services that should count towards the local authority input as being those which relate to personal care. Supporting People is intended to meet support services that are unlikely to fall within the definition of personal care. The cost to the local authority of any services provided under Supporting People will not, therefore, be considered to be part of the minimum £200 input needed for a successful application. Nor will it be considered to be part of the input used to calculate whether the overall joint cost is within the maximum of £665 for the first six months. Local authorities will be asked to identify separately any provision made under Supporting People when completing the SSD 1000 form, detailing their input to a joint package. ANNUALISING AWARDS Trevor Chapman Operations Director Following the Quinquennial Review, the Trust Deeds were amended to allow payments above the maximum weekly sum to be made, providing that the annualised payments did not exceed the annualised amount available. This means that, providing that the total paid during the financial year from April to March does not exceed the maximum sum calculated over the number of weeks in the year that the client is entitled to funding, payments for particular weeks could exceed the maximum. Since this was introduced, we have been applying this on a case-by-case basis. This has enabled us to ensure that we have identified as many various scenarios as possible. A full policy is due to be considered by the Trustees in February and we hope to be able to issue complete guidance on annualised payments soon after their meeting. PAYING TO THIRD PARTIES Jacky Fisher Social Work Director Please remember that the Funds will not normally pay ILF money to a third party, including payroll organisations, so please do not request this unless there are exceptional reasons, for example a risk that the ILF payments will not be used appropriately. Whatever arrangements are to be made for payment, please always make it clear to clients or their representatives that they must inform the ILF of any changes of circumstances. If you are aware of any such changes in circumstances, please contact the ILF yourself. ILF Office Move 17 January 2003 Robyn Lewis Customer Services We have outgrown our present offices, as we urgently need extra staff to process cases more speedily, and provide a better service to clients. We moved to a brand new office in the centre of Nottingham on 17 January. You should have received formal notification of the new address, phone number etc recently. As you will appreciate it will a bit of a struggle to maintain our normal service during the time of the move, so please bear with us! The Funds’ new telephone number is 0845 601 8815 (Lo-call rate). CUSTOMER SERVICES Robyn Lewis Customer Services You can contact the Customer Services team using their direct lines, but please note these numbers will be charged at the usual national rate. General Enquiries Any of the Customer Services Team will be happy to assist with a general enquiry Contact Officers Robyn Lewis 0115 - 9450842 Jenny Hilton 0115 - 9450843 Presentations Chris Priddle 0115 - 9450844 Lesley Berry 0115 - 9450847 Ian Lawrence 0115 - 9450846 Customer Services Manager Jeff Macbeth 0115 - 9450845 FAX NUMBERS Customer Services 0115 - 9450948 93 Fund 0115 –9450945 Extension Fund 0115 - 9450946 EX-LONG STAY HOSPITAL PATIENTS Trevor Chapman Operations Director This is a subject that continues to cause difficulties between the Funds and local authorities. The Trustees have recently reviewed their policy regarding long stay hospital patients. The main points are: New Applications A new application to the Fund will not be successful if the applicant has, at any time, been a long stay hospital patient, other than solely for treatment or assessment. Local authorities are asked whether an applicant has been a long stay hospital patient on the application form. The application will be rejected if this question is answered “Yes” unless the local authority provides evidence that this was solely for treatment or assessment. The Visiting Social worker will also ask this question at the initial visit. Current Applications It is recognised that the Funds policy on this issue was not clarified for some time and questions about previous circumstances were not asked. Because of this, if, on review, it emerges that the client was, at one time, a long stay hospital patient but this had not been questioned previously, then payment can continue. If it emerges that the Fund was given incorrect information and paid in the belief that the client had not previously been a long stay patient then consideration will be given to withdrawing funding. Where payments have been suspended on discovering that a client had been a long stay patient, we will review the decision and reinstate payment unless incorrect information was given or the local authority has since agreed to meet the full cost of all the clients needs. CONTACT OFFICER INFORMATION DAYS Robyn Lewis Customer Services We have completed 17 out of the 22 days booked, thank you to all who have attended. The feedback we have received so far, from presenters and Contact Officers, has been extremely positive regarding the content and format of the event. As discussed at the days we will be park boarding all queries raised. Due to the move, and the time we are going to lose resulting from this, we will wait until all the information days are completed before compiling these and sending them to you. There are still limited spaces available at the five remaining information days, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham. If anyone has not yet returned his or her invitation, please do so as soon as possible. If we cannot get you in the venue you want, we will try to accommodate you at another of the venues. All Contact Officers who have not been able to attend should have received a set of literature handed out on the day. If you have not received this information please contact Robyn Lewis on 0115 9450842. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Jeff Macbeth Customer Services Manager As part of the ILF Business Plan for 2002-2003 we are developing a comprehensive performance measurement programme, aimed at highlighting problem areas so that procedures can be streamlined, enabling us to improve the quality of service we are able to offer our clients. This will look at things like clearance rates for applications, revisits and reviews, payment accuracy, overpayments raised, and investigation referrals made. We will include performance figures in our annual report. There are also a number of quality checks, including scrutinising feedback from presentations and Information Days, and you may be contacted by a senior manager for direct feedback on Customer Services’ performance during presentations, Information Days, and day-to-day contact. This is now normal practice; so do not be alarmed if you are contacted! |
 |
