DiY Social Care Assesments

 

Care Plans? DIY!

Care plans are an essential part of Social Care and Health. The law says, and authorities insist, that your needs will be met if it's in your care plan. 

A lot of issues can be solved by making sure you have a comprehensive and detailed care plan. 

I'm not talking about the one that the Social Services do; Meaning well, Social Services tend to miss the point often and don't note down everything you raise. There are often numerous mistakes, regardless of talks about person centered or personalisation. Too often the pressure is on staff members to try and make sure people get minimum care, due to financial pressures on the services. 

One of the biggest issues that I see is that a trained person is sent out to do your assessment, and they may agree on your needs at the time but are subsequently overruled by managers or panel members who've never met you. 

Getting a care plan or a visit from the services can leave people waiting weeks or even months. Recent information from social services tells us that there's a huge backlog. My experience of having the care plan or review done has not always been positive and to me, it often feels like a tick box exercise. 

Is there a solution? I think so, and the secret is do it yourself, which I guarantee will be more comprehensive, detailed and accurate. It is also a precise record of what you want and need. But where do you start? 

If I had my way I would get rid of the processes in place today and start again from listening and using your stories. Who knows better what you need than you. One of the biggest issues I've seen is no one advises you to prepare and take the time to note down your needs, or even explain the importance and value of how your needs meet the wellbeing principles. 

After the assessment, I've always wished I'd have remembered to mention things I missed. It is your plan so why not be able to do it yourself or get family/friends who you know involved in helping you. 

The Care Act is the starting point. Section 9(4) of the Care Act specifies that the needs assessment must identify the following:

• The person's care and support needs. 

• The impact of the person's needs for care and support on all aspects of wellbeing. 

• The outcomes that the person wants to achieve.

There are two very important words that are used all the time, but are often not understood by the general public. 

The first is “needs”. What are Care Act Needs? The middle box in the diagram below shows what those needs are and these are the needs the Local Authority must meet if you are assessed as eligible.

Needs/wellbeing pictorial representation 

Eligibility is, if you have physical mental problems that substantially affect two or more areas in the middle box. You are deemed to meet the eligibility criteria. Once you pass this threshold, all the identified needs in the middle box should be met as required. 

Now to judge the impact of these needs, see outer box, these are areas of your wellbeing. These show how things and which areas should be improved and matched against your needs. i.e if this need is met it should improve X wellbeing principles.

Though the Act clearly says it it should be matched against wellbeing, I have never seen this done. Most assessors if asked and even a lot of Health and Social Care staff, do not realise this. In fact, most people think it's a buzzword relating to general health. When in fact it's very specific and mentioned right at the beginning of the Care Act. The only time it usually gets mentioned is in the higher courts. When challenged, judges will look at what needs should be met but more importantly why and how does this affect the person's wellbeing. It's such an important part but always missed out. 

By doing the assessment yourself, using the pictorial representation above, you can check yourself not only what needs should be met, but by looking at wellbeing, see how that will or should improve things for you.

Most people are not told that the statutory guidance under the Care Act states that you can be involved in as much of the process as you like. There are also other suggestions called assisted assessments. In this case, you do as much as you like, and rely on social services to help you work through the essential bits if needed. 

The best advice I can give is to keep a diary starting a week or two before for assessment. 

Using the pictorial representation as a guide, I've also created a daily log sheet that you may wish to print out below. Everytime you think of something that affects a need like going to the bathroom, write it down, along with the issues you've had and what you think you need to be able to manage this need. It doesn't always have to be care, sometimes equipment provision can also solve the problem e.g a raised toilet seat, or support rails alongside the toilet. 

In the far box on the right, write down what wellbeing principle this will help with i.e. dignity in being able to manage yourself. Do this each day and if it's multiple times a day again just note the when, where, why, who, why and how. 

Another idea from other gov benefits on disability is to try and remember to write down whether you can do it repeatedly, safely and in a timely manner, as all this can affect your personal mental and physical health yourself. 

One other very important point, its not just what your needs are now, but those needs that aren't fulfilled at all say, developing maintaining relationships, accessing localing facilities or getting help for education, training or voluntary work. These are all needs that would like to do, but do not have the assistance or equipment to access.

When contacted by the assessor, ask for an email or address so you can post a copy to them beforehand. It will save both of you time and effort. They may still insist they use their form as its "policy" which is fine, but please ask them to ensure your notes are added to or attached to their form. When signing make sure you add and copy the sheets or any diary notes  you may have put together and give to the Social worker.

If issues happen later you can say they were given a copy of your plan and needs and if they don't take these into consideration it'll give you much firmer ground to stand on.

Even with this, they may still come back to you with “we won't supply this or that”. In this case, remind them that it is an identified need under the Care Act the effects non provision will have on your wellbeing. 

Subsequently, if I need to employ staff, I use a copy of this document not only as a care plan but attach it to their work schedule of duties that need completing or doing.

If things change you can always change your plan and send it on to social care. If, like me, you have a deteriorating condition, you can bring up and send written notes to those that have changed at review or before. 

Example:

Blank for use: