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October 2004Advance Review Visits Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer You will all have received advance review visits notification. The lists are posted to all of you in the 1st week of the month, every month. It is envisaged that you will receive 13 weeks notice of potential visits. When the case is actually allocated to an ILFA for the visit, the LA and Fund User will be notified. The ILFA will then contact the LA Social Worker/Care Manager to arrange a suitable time to visit the Fund User. Independent Living Fund Assessors (ILFAs) are only asked to conduct a visit once 2 years has elapsed since a Fund user’s last visit. If you or your colleagues have any questions or queries relating to the review visits please could you contact the Nottingham office, and ask to speak to Customer Services or the person dealing with the surname of the Fund user. Local Authority Moves and or Departmental Reshuffle Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer From time to time Social Services departments move to new offices, teams alter and/or rename. This in itself is not a problem. The ILF would appreciate being notified of Social Service department reshuffles. This should include notification of your change of address, telephone numbers, and email addresses. This will enable both Nottingham staff and our ILFAs to maintain effective links with your Local Authority. User Profile Analysis Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer The Information & Services Directorate has recently published detailed User Profile Analysis in a revised format, and provides a breakdown of our caseload in terms of: * Age * Gender * Household (for example, people who live alone, people who live with parents etc.) * Benefit Entitlement * Disability We have also included a geographical breakdown showing the number of users in each social services area. The information can be viewed on our website, www.ilf.org.uk. Thank you to all of those Contact Officers who have already commented on the User Profile Analysis. Your comments have been noted and we will endeavour to implement as many of your suggestions as possible in time for the publication of December 2004 statistics. However some of the suggestions might take a little longer to implement. Complaints Procedure Avwiene Etefia Complaint and Review Manager ILF has centralised its handling of complaints and requests to review decisions. The person now responsible for all such cases is Avwiene Etefia, Complaints and Review Manager. He can be contacted by post, email, and by telephone (0115 945 0736), at avwiene.etefia@ilf.org.uk You may also express concerns to any of our Assessors during a visit, who will inform us of these. If you are not satisfied with Mr. Etefia’s response, an appeal can be made to the Chief Executive, Elaine Morton, in writing. We are always pleased to know when we have done a good job. Therefore, do tell us if you are happy with a particular service you receive. We use these to gauge the success of our service. We Need You! Jonathan Duckworth Client Liaison Manager Yes, we need your help again…. The Independent Living Fund is using a company called Chapter Eight to develop its website. Together with input from our Client User Group we are trying to create a website browsing experience that is accessible for people with various disabilities without compromising any of the information content. We will be getting some ILF users to test a prototype of the new website when it becomes available. They will probably be given various scenarios to work with when testing the site and will be asked to give feedback about how easy it was to navigate between pages and highlight the good and bad points. We will then use this feedback to fine-tune what we have and come up with the best website possible. As Social Workers use the website too we are looking for people who would volunteer to be involved in the testing. It will not amount to a great deal of work and those that are selected for participation will obviously be part of an elite group who have seen the new improved website before it goes live – making them the envy of all their peers, one supposes! Access to the Internet is the only essential for becoming involved. We don’t just want to hear from people who are computer whizzes either – as this site has got to be easy to use for everyone! If you would like to offer your services please send your contact details to Jon Duckworth, Client Liaison Manager. Tel: (0115) 945 0773. Email: jon.duckworth@ilf.org.uk How to obtain your own copy of the Professionals’ User Guide (PUG) Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer For those of you who are not aware the PUG is available on the Funds website at www.ilf.org.uk, click on News, Professionals User Guide. The Customer Services team have received several phone calls and emails from social workers and care managers to say they have had difficulty trying to download the PUG, in particular section 8. I have raised the issue with our Computer Support team who have suggested it is a technical problem. It seems that the software used to access the PUG might require upgrading, and this can be done by clicking the link: - (you may need version 6.0 or above of Internet Explorer to view these documents. Click here to upgrade.) If you have any difficulties accessing or downloading the PUG please do not hesitate to contact us. Furthermore, for those of you who do not have Internet access, black and white copies of the PUG can be purchased for £10.90 from Simon French, Information Manager. He can be contacted by email at simon.french@ilf.org.uk or phone on 0845 601 8815 Ext.1775. ILF On the Road! Jonathan Duckworth Client Liaison Manager The Independent Living Fund is taking its road show to the South West of England. The event will be taking place at the Southgate Hotel, Southernhay East, Exeter, EX1 1QF, on 28 October 2004. Doors will open at 10.00am and people are invited to come along throughout the day until 5.00pm. The road show is a great opportunity for Fund users to meet ILF staff and have their questions answered and meet other users. Social Workers and other professionals are welcome too. Those who have attended previous events have said they found it useful to ask questions in an informal context. Anyone wanting more information about the day can contact me - Jonathan Duckworth, Client Liaison Manager - 0115 945 0773 jon.duckworth@ilf.org.uk Payment Assurance Questionnaire David Smith Payment Assurance Manager As part of a Payment Assurance Project, I have issued some Employer Records Questionnaires to ILF Assessors. ILF Assessors are requesting that all clients they visit as part of the Funds review programme answer a set of 14 questions. This is only for a temporary period, between 4 October and 7 November. Each question focuses on the area of employer responsibilities and record keeping. Most of this information would normally be gathered as part of a revisit anyway, so it should not take up too much of the Fund User’s time. If fund users only employ agency care there are only three questions to answer. If our Fund User’s PA’s are self-employed the information required is also limited. The questionnaires will not be kept with any other information we hold for our Fund Users and there are no Fund User details, such as reference numbers, on the form. We will not therefore know which Fund User has answered the questions. The results of the questionnaires will provide some indication of how ILF Users keep records about the people they employ using ILF awards. The results will also indicate what level of support and assistance ILF Users need in order to fulfill their responsibilities as employers. If you have any information for me of how your Local Authority assists ILF Users with their awards and associated responsibilities please get in touch. I am available Tuesday to Friday on 0115 9450730. Just For Fun Robyn Lewis Customer Services Officer The paommnnehil pweor of the hmuan mind. Aoccdring to rsareech by Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can still raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huam mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amazing huh? However, please remember the clearer the information is provided to the Funds, the quicker it will be dealt with! Annual Report Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer The ILF have recently published the 2003-2004 annual report. The report focuses on the level of service that we have achieved during the last financial year. The Annual Report can be viewed at our website www.ilf.org.uk, News, Annual Reports, then selecting the top link entitled Annual Report. Hard copies can also be requested from Customer Services. Cancellation of ILF cases Jacky Fisher Social Work Director The ILF are trying to make sure that we give as quick and accurate a service as possible to its clients. We have found that on occasions our work is considerably delayed when cases are allocated to the ILF Assessors (ILFAs), but the Local Authority (LA) are not able to go ahead with making arrangements for the required visit to take place. We have now asked our ILFAs to follow the guidelines outlined below, and it would be appreciated if LA representatives could try to respond as promptly as possible to the ILFAs so that cases do not have to be cancelled. New Applications If the LA is unable to go ahead with a visit to a client within 4 weeks of being contacted by the ILFA, the application will be closed, and the LA will need to contact Nottingham when they are ready to proceed. Revisits If the LA does not respond to contact about a revisit from an ILFA within 4 weeks, the ILFA will issue a letter supplied by Nottingham. This letter will give 2 weeks’ notice of the intention to cancel the visit, and for Nottingham to be informed. If the visit does not go ahead, Nottingham staff will notify the LA of the next course of action, and payments to the client may be affected. User Newsletter Matthew Harrison Customer Services Officer The Client Liaison Manager publishes a User Newsletter twice a year. The October 2004 Newsletter has recently been sent to fund users. Unfortunately a technical error has occurred; therefore a number of users will not receive a copy of the Newsletter. If you or your colleagues are informed of users who have not received their October 2004 Newsletter could you inform them that further copies can be obtained from the Client Liaison Manager, or alternatively the User Newsletter can viewed on our website at www.ilf.org.uk 0115 945 0773 jon.duckworth@ilf.org.uk Contact Details Independent Living Funds PO Box 7525 Nottingham NG2 4ZT Tel: 0845 6018815 Fax: 0115 9450948 Text: 0845 6018816 Email: funds@ilf.org.uk Website: www.ilf.org.uk |
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