WBC - DASS - Choice Directive or Care Home of Choice Policy
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please disclose your policy supporting people to choose a care home of their choice or what may be referred to as the 'Choice Directive'.
Please supply dates when this policy was reviewed previously.
Yours faithfully,
Pete Sheffield
Hello Pete Sheffield
Thank you for your request below, Wirral Council can now supply the
following information, please note Wirral Council follows national
guidance on choice directive which is attached.
All leaflets and documents for the public, charging policy and care
services directory are on p.21 of the personal budgets information and can
be found at wirral.gov.uk.
/[1]http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/soc...,
we have previously supplied Personalisation guidance.
1. Advice and information
Introduction
The provision of relevant and accurate advice and information is the
business of everyone who works for The Council. It will also be promoted
through Wirral Councils website, partner agencies in health, the
community, voluntary and faith sectors.
There is a marketing campaign on the Transformation of Adult Social Care
focussing on personalisation, localisation and integration. Material is
already available as part of the Your Future, Your Choice branding of the
Department. This links with the vision of Wirral Council, the Department
of Adult Social Services is a key element of ensuring that individuals are
informed of the priorities of the Department and the support that is
available to them.
The Department of Adult Social Services has up to date and accurate
information on a range of health and social care matters on its website
and a range of leaflets and factsheets that cover:
Leaflets:
• Assistive Technology
• Charging Policy
• Financial Support for Carers
• Personal Budgets
• Support for Adults
• Support for Older People
• Support for Carers
• Safeguarding Adults
Fact sheets:
• POPIN
• Direct Payments
• Pendant Alarms
• Day Services
• Residential Units
• Supported living
• Moving and Handling for Carers
• HARTS
• Visual Impairment
• Information about You
• Complaints, Comments and Compliments
For information about obtaining the Departments publications in other
formats (for example, large print, British sign language, other languages,
audio, Braille, CD or Easy Read) contact the Central Advice and Duty Team
(CADT) on 0151 606 2006.
For immediate help with an individual who does not speak English, or has
poor English, use Language Line which is a telephone interpreting service
the Council subscribes to.
20
Best Practice Guidance – Advice and Information
The Council has a number of expectations of its staff and it is essential
that all staff
adhere to the Councils Code of Conduct and also the Customer Care
Standards
The Council expects its entire staff to:
• Familiarise themselves about current Council publications
• Familiarise themselves about what publications exist in their relevant
Department
• Provide individuals and carer’s relevant information and how it applies
to them
• Provide copies of relevant leaflets, booklets and fact sheets to the
individual for reference purposes’ during the assessment process
• Provide copies of all assessments/ reviews completed
• Use jargon free language
• Provide information in an appropriate format, language and arrange
relevant parts to be translated if necessary
Within the Department of Adult Social Services the following information
will be sent out to individuals and carers during the self directed
assessment process should the individual be eligible for support. These
will be available through the website or sent on request.
On the internet there are also really helpful websites and guidance
available to assist staff to understand personalisation and the legal
framework this sits within. Websites such as:
The Social Care Institute for Excellence’s (SCIE) The Social Care
Institute whose aim is to identify and spread knowledge about good
practice to the large and diverse social care workforce and support the
delivery of transformed, personalised social care services. They aim to
reach and influence practitioners, managers and the sector leadership who
have responsibility for service delivery in adults’ and children’s
services. A link to this website can be accessed below.
21
Hyperlinks – Advice and Information (Information, Pathways and Forms)
To view leaflets and fact sheets currently available - click here
To access the intranet - click here
To view the Councils Code of Conduct - click here
To view the Councils Customer Care Standards - click here
To view Individual information pack introductory letters – click here
To view Self directed support guidance – click here
To view Support plan template – click here
To view Financial profile form – click here
To view Disability Expenditure form - click here
To view the Charging policy - click here
To view the Care Services Directory - click here
To view additional guidance on personalization / personal budgets intranet
page - click here
To view the SCIE website - click here http://www.scie.org.uk/
I hope that you find this information of use.
Kind regards
Tracy O'Hare
FOI Co-ordinator
Information Management
CH41 6BU
This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge
Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
Thank you for your response.
It is noted that you have included the choice directive guidance from the department of health.
If you note my request on the 11th March 2012 it requested 'Please disclose your policy supporting people to choose a care home of their choice or what may be referred to as the 'Choice Directive'.
Please supply dates when this policy was reviewed previously.'
This is not the WBC Policy as requested. There have been no dates provided as to when it was reviewed as you have no policy - you are unable to review it.
By using the national guidance rules WBC fails to adapt to the local needs of its population, fails to be able to review and interpret the guidance to the best benefit of its demographics and fails to create procedures which would underpin sound working practices that would embody the guidance. With no clear lines of procedure and with no clear people responsible to timeframes then it leaves opportunity for people not to have the choice of care provider.
From the multiple documents, fact sheets and signposting you have provided there seems to be no policy in place for the 'Choice Directive' apart from personal budgets which cannot be used for residential placements.
In your response of the 5th April 2012 you state describing your staff:
The Council expects its entire staff to:
• Familiarise themselves about current Council publications
• Familiarise themselves about what publications exist in their relevant Department
• Provide individuals and carer’s relevant information and how it applies
to them
• Provide copies of relevant leaflets, booklets and fact sheets to the
individual for reference purposes’ during the assessment process
• Provide copies of all assessments/ reviews completed
• Use jargon free language
• Provide information in an appropriate format, language and arrange
relevant parts to be translated if necessary
Your staff would be unable to familiarise themselves with the choice directive as:
1. It is not a current council publication
2. It is not a publication within their department
3. Be able to provide the carers / families with the guidance notes as they are not listed within the list of available resources
4. Provide information in an appropriate format as there is no WBC policy to provide.
In conclusion, it seems you have failed to answer this request and have shown that without such a policy you set up your department to fail in its expectations of its front line staff.
More seriously it seems that those who should be offered a choice as per the guidance are left without that choice as information is not clear to service users or families, and Social Workers do not have access to it as it is not a WBC publication.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Sheffield
Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
My original request on the 11 March 2012 asked:
'Please disclose your policy supporting people to choose a care home of their choice or what may be referred to as the 'ChoiceDirective'.
Please supply dates when this policy was reviewed previously.'
Can you confirm that WBC does not have its own policy regarding the 'Choice Directive' and therefore has not reviewed it so I can adjust the status of this request.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Sheffield
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'WBC - DASS - Choice Directive or Care Home of Choice Policy'.
You have failed to answer my request.
Yours faithfully,
Pete Sheffield
Good Morning
Thank you for your further correspondence below, apologies for the delay
in responding. Wirral Council department of adult social services have
advised that any issues of choice are covered through the assessment
process. Information on this process has previously been supplied to you.
Kind regards
Tracy O'Hare
Information Management
Wirral Council
This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge
Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
Can you confirm that WBC does not have its own policy regarding the 'Choice Directive' and therefore has not reviewed it so I can adjust the status of this request.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Sheffield
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your enquiry below. Apologies for the delay in responding,
the Choice Directive is national guidance; Wirral therefore does not have
a separate local policy. Wirral works within the guidance framework.
Previous answers have illustrated how Wirral applies the Choice Directive.
Kind regards and sent on behalf of
Tracy O'Hare
FOI Co-ordinator
Information Management
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral
CH44 8ED
Tel: 0151 691 8397
[Wirral Borough Council request email]
This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge
From: Pete Sheffield
9 June 2012
Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
Can you confirm that WBC does not have its own policy regarding the
'Choice Directive' and therefore has not reviewed it so I can
adjust the status of this request.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Sheffield
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