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July 2003Policy Amendment Section 8 Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 Jacky Fisher - SW Director We previously told you that the Funds would not be involved with anyone who was receiving care services under Section 8 of the above Act. In view of further research we have therefore amended our policy. New Policy We consider that someone who is subject to a Section 35A of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 would not be considered for ILF funding. We are aware that a new Act is coming into force in Scotland in the near future. Nearer the time of the new Act we will see if there is a need for our policy to be revised. Advance Forecasting of 1993 Fund Review Cases Lesley Berry - Customer Services At the recent Contact Officer Information Days we discussed the possibility of issuing lists of 1993 Fund users selected for a review revisit. The planning of this is almost complete with the first list coming to you in the autumn. It is proposed that we will send a list to you giving 2 months notification of the Fund users we need to visit in the following 3 months. In your role as Contact Officer we would be grateful if you could help us by arranging for the appropriate people in your Department to be notified of the users that we intend to visit. Delays have occurred in the past when we have been writing to Local Authority representatives (LA reps) who no longer work in that area. Some Fund users do not have an allocated LA rep and this too has caused delays. If you can advise us of any change in LA reps it will speed up the process. It is vital that the Fund is able to obtain full details of your authorities provision to the Fund user’s care plan during this review, as without this confirmation the Fund cannot maintain payments to the Fund user. We are unable to identify the exact week each Fund user will be selected for a review due to the fact that we can only issue a limited number each week, and the potential selection group each week may exceed this figure. However, it is hoped that by providing the advanced list of users we will target we can avoid delays, and ensure that the Fund has all the information needed so that there is no interruption to the Fund users’ provision. Please note that these lists will apply to 1993 Fund users only. Review Delays Joel Major - Review Programme Manager Further to concerns raised at the Contact Officer Information Days I would like to advise the following: The 1993 Fund, as at December 2002, were taking on average 228 days to process a review. This is now at 214 days. The number of cases cleared within 20 weeks has improved, from 19.6% to 44.2%. The Extension Fund processing times have reduced from 148 days average to 111 days. The clearance rate has also improved from 57.2% to 81.5% We are now also clearing all the oldest outstanding cases and have specifically set up a project to deal with these. The first set being targeted is all cases outstanding for over 365 days and we will gradually reduce this time span as the cases are cleared. This may though have an initial negative impact on the average clearance figures as older cases are cleared. We employed new staff earlier this year and are still recruiting. It will take a little while before the new staff are fully ‘up to speed’. The long-term target is to be up to speed for March 2004. ILF Shared Care in Supported Living Arrangements Jacky Fisher - SW Director When one of our Visiting Social Workers is assessing the level of care either needed or already being provided in a setting where some of the care is shared, they often encounter difficulties with understanding how much care is being provided to each tenant at any one time. This makes it virtually impossible to account for the way in which ILF money is used. To help with this, we have reproduced a sample (see attached) of how an LA representative might work out how the care plan actually operates, and therefore how many “person” hours are needed/used by the ILF client. We hope this could be a useful tool for the LA representative to use before an ILF visit so that the SSD1000 can be more easily completed, and the required amount to be requested from the ILF be more clearly identified. Example of Shared Care in Supported Living Arrangements Jacky Fisher SW Director SUMMARY OF CARE HOURS NEEDED BY ‘DAVID’ Individual care Number of individual hours = 19.5 Shared Care Number of hours at 2:3 = 46. That means 92 ‘person’ hours shared by 3 tenants. In addition there are 9 1:3 hours therefore the total number of hours shared by 3 tenants is 101. Divide this by 3 to give the number of hours attributed to David which is 33.66 David’s care package would be as follows: 19.5 hours (individual care) 33.66 hours (proportion of shared care) One third of the night care 5 days at Day Centre Please look at the care grid below which shows how this information has been placed into a 24 hours care grid to help identify the shared care situation and identify David’s individual needs. Our Visiting Social Worker needs to complete a similar care grid for all shared care situations and therefore it is essential that the person attending the ‘visit’ have access to all the relevant information.
NIGHT CARE (Indicate whether waking or sleeping nights) EXAMPLE :“ASSISTANCE NEEDED FOR DAVID” David currently shares a house with two others who also require assistance. Key to Table Above: SL = Sleep-in. Shared by all three tenants. 1:1 = Individual assistance SH 2:3 = 2 P.A.s assisting 3 tenants SH 1:3 = 1 P.A. assisting 3 tenants The User Guide - Information for people who use the ILF (1993 & Extension Fund Users) Jon Duckworth - Registry Manager The ILF has published a bumper “User Guide” to better inform its Fund users about its services. The pack contains details about ways in which Fund users can contact us, how offers and awards are calculated, how payments are made, how to request increases in awards, and what changes the Funds need to be told about. This is rather more than just general information so the intention is that the User Guide will be given to Fund users who have applied and are about to begin receiving an ILF award. It is anticipated that our Visiting Social Workers will bring a copy of the User Guide to the joint visit and explain briefly what it is. The Fund’s Registry Section will then send Fund users their own copy of the guide when we receive the completed report from the VSW. Work needs to be done on our computer system to ensure that the User Guide is sent out promptly with a covering letter when the report comes to us. This will be a priority for our Computer Support team. Traffic Jam! Richard Spence - 1993 Fund Officer At the start of the financial year most agencies seem to increase their rates, and we in turn are asked to increase our award. Can you imagine all 207 authorities getting in contact at the same time? The end result is a traffic jam! It could cause a delay in our ability to attend to your client’s increased need. Please help us to help your client by letting us know ALL the details of the care package. In all cases we not only need to know that the agencies have increased their charges but also need to have the number of private hours and nights that are engaged. We also need to know the hours and nights that the LA provides. It may be easier for you to complete another SSD1000 and submit it with the private care breakdown. Copies of the SSD1000 can be requested from our Registry department on 0845 601 8815. New Applications Target Suzanne Holt - 1993 Fund A - D Section Manager The 1993 Fund has recently reviewed the time it takes to deal with new applications. Feedback from Contact Officer Information Days, for example, has highlighted some disappointment with delays in making an offer to new clients. As we are constantly seeking to improve our customer service, we have now set ourselves a target time. We want to be able to deal with an application from the date of it arriving at the Fund to an offer being made within 15 weeks. We should be able to achieve this provided that we have all the necessary information to make an offer. If we do not then we may approach you for answers to our queries. We are aware that we need to improve on the way in which we gather information and the Fund has recently reviewed this. Our aim is to do this as efficiently as possible, asking all relevant questions at the same time whenever we can. All we ask is that you, in turn, respond promptly. If we raise a query, we will regard it as your responsibility to answer it as quickly as possible. We will not continue to send out reminders for information beyond a certain point. This is not an efficient use of our staff and it affects the quality of service that we are able to offer our other clients. Please bear in mind that if you do not respond at all, an assessment cannot be progressed and a decision will be made as to whether the case should be closed. The Fund is unwilling to keep ‘assessment’ cases open for an indefinite period. To avoid delays, please remember to bring the completed SSD1000 form to the joint visit. This document is essential to the completion of a new assessment. It must be fully completed in ink. The lack of an SSD1000 or an incomplete one is one of the main reasons for delays in processing a new assessment. We do recognise that some assessments are complicated and cannot be completed within 15 weeks. However, we still want to deal with these cases as quickly as possible so that clients are not kept waiting unnecessarily for a decision from the Fund. If an application is likely to be delayed please stay in touch and keep us informed. How To Make A Successful Application To The Fund Jon Duckworth - Registry Manager A surprisingly large proportion of applications fall at the first fence. Here is a list of things to be aware of which will help ensure the application is a success: · Check whether the Higher Rate Care Component of DLA is in payment, or if a person has underlying entitlement to receive high rate DLA or Attendance Allowance (AA) or Constant Attendance Allowance (CAA) of the equivalent amount. We receive a lot of applications from people who receive only Middle or Lower Rate; we have to turn these down. · If you know Higher Rate DLA is in payment, send us the proof and it could save even more time. If it has been awarded under Special Rules you can also save time by supplying the name and address of the applicant’s Doctor, and the applicant’s consent to contact their Doctor. · Check that the application form has been signed. We return applications that are not signed in the right places by the right people. Remember: the applicant or their appointee MUST sign the form. The LA rep should not sign any of the applicant’s declarations unless he or she is the appointee or has Power of Attorney. · Check that the form is completed in full. We return those applications that are incomplete because missing information prevents us from doing our job. We especially need date of birth, National Insurance numbers and consent to contact the Dept. for Work and Pensions, as without it we cannot confirm receipt of DLA. · Check that the eligibility criteria are met. Remember that during the first 6 months a joint package between the LA and the Fund cannot cost more than £665.00 per week. If more than £665.00 per week is required a third party would be acceptable eg, Health Authority, supporting people, client contribution. After the first 6 months of our joint package the contribution from the LA can increase, enabling the package between the Fund and LA to be higher than £665.00. The Fund cannot, on average, contribute more than £395.00 per week whether that be on day one of the joint package or at anytime during the package. Contact Officer Satisfaction Surveys Suzanne Holt - 1993 Fund A - D Section Manager Each quarter a number of you are selected and asked for your comments on the support we provide to you in your role as Contact Officer. You will be asked for feedback on, for example, any presentations that you may have attended, how we handle your queries here at Nottingham, the type of information you are sent and how it is sent to you etc. This feedback is part of a check carried out by the Funds and is an important part of our customer service. It enables us to identify areas that we could improve upon but also those that we do well. At the moment we contact you by telephone and then e-mail you if we cannot get in touch with you directly or if you do not return any messages we leave. However, we are finding that even our e-mails are not being answered. This causes some concern, as we have no way of knowing whether you are getting the support you need! We should be very grateful if you would take the time to respond to us if you are contacted - it should only take about 5 minutes or so. If you have any ideas on how we could actually make it easier for you to feedback to us, please let us know. Thank you (in advance) for your co-operation. Customer Services Any of the Customer Services Team will be happy to assist with any general enquiries. Dial code 0115 - Ian Lawrence 9450846 Chris Priddle 9450844 Lesley Berry 9450847 Robyn Lewis 9450842 If you want to know more about the Fund coming to your LA to carry out a presentation in the first instance please call Chris Priddle or Lesley Berry. If you need guidance or support please telephone Robyn Lewis or Lesley Berry. In the absence of a specific member of staff all, staff will assist in all areas. All customer services staff have voicemail. At peak periods this does prove useful, please leave a message and you will be contacted as soon as possible. All staff can give general advice and information to professional or non-professional callers. If you have a query related to a fund user you should contact the Funds general phone number (0845 601 8815) and ask to speak to the case holder. Please ensure you have the Fund user’s name and reference number available. |
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