Actions and Next Steps (Duty Long Term)

You will often receive telephone contacts requesting to speak to a named worker or a particular service. However, this may or may not be the best person for them to speak to.

When the person/carer making the contact requests specifically to speak to or be contacted by a particular team or practitioner you should establish as quickly as possible whether the contact should be forwarded to that practitioner/team.

You should check available systems to establish whether:

1. The person/carer is allocated to the practitioner they have requested to speak to; or
2. The service/team is responsible for either the assessment or review of the person/carers needs.

You should not transfer a telephone call to a named worker if it is clear that the worker is not allocated to the person/carer. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person/carer as they will not be speaking to the right person to resolve the contact.

If the practitioner is not available

If the practitioner is not available you should try and establish when they may become available by looking at any electronic calendars they use or speaking with a member of the service/team they are based in.

If you know when the practitioner is likely to become available you should:

1. Inform the person/carer of this;
2. Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and confirming the information given to the person about when to expect a call back;
3. Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required should the practitioner be unavailable for more than a few hours;
4. Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact at the expected time; and
5. Make a proportionate record of all the above.

If it is not clear when the practitioner will become available you should:

1. Inform the person/carer of this;
2. Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and what information has been given to the person/carer;
3. Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required; and
4. Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
5. Make a proportionate record of all the above.

When a written contact is addressed to a named worker you should establish as quickly as possible whether the contact should be forwarded to that practitioner.

You should check available systems to establish whether the person/carer is allocated to the practitioner that the written contact is addressed to.

You should not transfer a written contact to a named worker if it is clear that the worker is not allocated to the person/carer. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person/carer as they will not be dealing with the right person to resolve the contact.

Before transferring the contact you should:

1. Confirm that the practitioner the written communication is being transferred to is available within a reasonable timeframe for the action indicated by the contact, or that there is a mechanism in place for the written contact to be received and managed by the service in which they work;
2. Where the communication is a letter or an e-mail, whether the practitioner wishes to receive the original contact (if not this should be filed securely); and
3. Where a written response confirming the contact has been received is required or requested, agree who will provide this.

The most secure way to transfer a written contact is to send a message to the practitioner alerting them to the contact and where it can be found on the recording system.

Any original copies of e-mails must be sent via internal secure e-mail systems only and any original letters must be sent via internal postal services or secure delivery only.

If the practitioner is not available

If the practitioner is not available you should try and establish when they may become available by looking at any electronic calendars they use or speaking with a member of the service/team they are based in.

If the practitioner is not available within a reasonable timeframe for the action indicated by the contact you should:

1. Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, where it can be found on the recording system and any action undertaken, including what has been agreed with the person/carer if contact has been made with them;
2. Undertake any actions that you are able to in order to resolve some or part of the contact, including any urgent actions that may be required and writing any acknowledgement letter to confirm arrival of the contact;
3. When the practitioner is not available within any timeframes indicted in the written contact or for more than a few days inform the person/carer making the contact of this;
4. Agree with the person/carer what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
5. Make a proportionate record of all the above.

There are a range of functions that can be carried out on behalf of any allocated team/worker.

These functions include:

1. Suspending or restarting a service (for example, if a person is admitted to or discharged from hospital);
2. Arranging respite already agreed as part of a Care and Support Plan;
3. Completing referrals for internal and external teams.

Proportionate records should be made of all action carried out and the allocated worker/responsible team should be alerted.

Some of the functions carried out may require an element of review or monitoring.

You should seek to reach an agreement with the allocated worker/responsible team about how any follow-up actions or monitoring will take place. This decision should give regard to the views and wishes of the person/carer about how they would like any follow up action or monitoring to take place.

Where the allocated worker/responsible team or someone else is going to follow up on the action you have taken (rather than following up on it yourself) you must make sure that you have recorded this in a way that will ensure this takes place at the agreed time.

Whenever the outcome of a contact or referral is that the person/carer will be involved in any adult Care and Support process (including any assessment, review, reassessment or safeguarding) the Local Authority has a duty under the Care Act to make an independent advocate available to the person/carer when:

1. There is no appropriate other person to support and represent them; and
2. They feel that the person/carer would experience substantial difficulty being fully involved in the Care and Support process without support.

Decisions about the need for advocacy should be made as early as possible because advocacy must be provided before the Care and Support function to be carried out can begin. As such if you know that advocacy will be likely you should discuss this with the person and make a referral at the same time as you transfer the request for a review or reassessment.

See Using Independent Advocacy, which includes guidance on how to establish whether a person needs an advocate, the different advocates that are available and how to make a referral.

The Local Authority has a duty to provide good information around finances at an early stage. This provides people with an understanding from the beginning about how they may be expected to contribute financially towards the cost of any Care and Support/Support they receive so that they can start thinking about and planning how they could use their financial resources flexibly to fund a range of potential care options. You should take any opportunity to provide this information, and should particularly make sure that it has been provided whenever a transfer is made to another service that may result in an assessment, review or reassessment.

See: Specific Requirements on the Provision of the Information and Advice around Finances for guidance on the requirements of the Care Act.

See the Financial Assessment and Charging FAQ Response Support Tool for the answers to some frequently asked questions around financial assessment.

The following Wokingham information and advice resources are available online:

• Community Directory;
• Project Joy.

Practitioners can also refer people to the Community Navigation Scheme or signpost to the Involve Community Services Hub.

Sometimes it is helpful to contact a well known national organisation with a dedicated information and advice service or help-line. See: National Organisations with Information and Advice Helplines for details of some national organisations offering this service.

Some national organisations do not have dedicated information and advice services but can still provide such support upon request. See: National Contacts for Adult Care and Support for a wider range of useful national contacts for adult Care and Support.

You can also see the Financial Assessment and Charging FAQ Response Support Tool for the answers to some frequently asked questions around financial assessment, including questions relating to Disabled Facilities Grants.

Information and advice must be provided in an accessible way so that the person/carer for whom it is intended can best understand and make use of it.

If you feel the person/carer for whom the information and advice is intended will need support to understand it then you should:

1. Consider whether the person/carer has anyone appropriate who can help them to understand it;
2. Consider any steps that you can take to support them to understand it (for example talking through the information over the telephone or summarising it in a simpler format); and
3. Consider the benefit of independent advocacy.