Actions and Next Steps (Reablement)
The Local Authority (and anyone representing the Local Authority) has a duty under Section 4 of the Care Act to either provide directly, or provide access to a range of information and advice relating to adult Care and Support, including financial advice. This duty applies equally in respect of all local residents regardless of whether the person with Care and Support needs is known to, lives in, or is already receiving services from the Local Authority.
Methods of how information and advice can be provided:
This includes:
- Face-to-face interpreting;
- Document translation: provided in Word but other formats may be requested;
- Transcription of printed information, including council letters, into Braille and audiotape;
- Telephone interpreting: a three-way conversation for urgent cases where an interpreter can’t be present;
- Internet (Main Merton pages, Local directories);
- Leaflets.
See: Providing Information and Advice to read more about the duty to provide information and advice under the Care Act, including how information and advice should be provided and the specific information and advice requirements around finances.
The Adult Support Services Directory | Merton directories provides a range of online information and advice for adults on employment, education, health, housing, financial advice and things to do in the community.
People can also access the Merton Community Hub for help and advice about which organisations may be able to help them. They can do this without having had an adult social care assessment.
The hub offers:
- Cost of living advice;
- Mental health and wellbeing advice;
- Help for isolated households;
- Support to stay independent at home;
- Telephone befriending;
- Advice and practical help to stay active.
Tel: 020 8066 4086
Email: help@mertoncommunityhub.org.uk
Local Information, Advice and Preventative Support
Adult Social Care and Public Health commission a number of services that provide information, advice and preventative services to prevent, reduce and delay the need for health and social care statutory support.
These preventative services include the
- Civic Pride Grant Programme;
- Preventative Activities;
- Community Dementia Services;
- Carers Hub;
- Warm and Well Programme;
- Befriending.
Making Every Contact Count
MECC Link is a simple but flexible Very Brief Intervention (VBI) and signposting tool that has been carefully designed to support an approach to positive behaviour change called 'Making Every Contact Count' (MECC).
MECC Link helps you to raise awareness, motivate and signpost people to help them to improve their health and wellbeing. At the touch of a button, you can access information on a full range of self-care, national and local support services.
MECC Link - Simple signposting to better health and wellbeing
Civic Pride Grant Programme
The 3-year Civic Pride Grants Programme is aligned with the Innovation and Change Department and launched in April 2023-March 2026.
The 3-year Civic Pride Fund Supporting the Voluntary and Community Sector April 2023-March 26 programme aims to ensure that support is available for all Merton residents. It brings together preventative services that provide information, advice and support in the community to strengthen Merton resident’s physical, social, emotional, and economic resilience.
Listed below are the Civic Pride preventative services that provide information, advice and support:
Southwest London Law Centres provide legal casework and representation services in Merton, providing a new Merton-based Housing and Welfare Benefits Caseworker and a Crisis Navigator, based in the community, providing early triage and crisis navigation support.
Springfield Advice and Law Centre provides a legal advice service for mental health services users, offering advice and casework representation in debt and welfare benefit matters, including expanded advice outreach sessions.
Citizens Advice Merton and Lambeth provides a range of information, advice, casework and specialist support services to people across the borough relating to social welfare law. Services will include further enhanced Merton Adviceline, and face-to-face information support and advice provision.
Merton Vision are providing direct outreach support to residents with a visual impairment who are isolated and/or struggling with the cost of living. The service also provides one to one support services to a new client group (Hard of Hearing/Deaf people) in addition to people with a visual impairment. Merton Vision also provide a range of support and activities based at the Merton Vision community centre, including volunteer support, preventative activities, building travel confidence, communication support, low vision and lighting advice and social interaction.
Age UK Merton are providing an integrated Community Support Service (CSS), bringing together established Information and Advice and Living Well services, to further grow strengths and capabilities for older clients in Merton. Age UK also provide befriending support, help at home services, support with low level hoarding and a range of activities for older people at their base in Mitcham. Age UK Merton also have a Happy and Active Guide for older people. Alongside other community organisations in the Borough both offer a range of fitness and physical activity classes.
Merton Centre for Independent Living are increasing the capacity of the Information and Advice service through an accredited caseworker support for Deaf and Disabled residents in Merton relating to welfare benefits, social care, concessionary travel, housing, grant applications and health.
Merton Mencap are providing a Community Facilitator service which supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live to more independently and achieve positive life-goals. Merton Mencap also provide a range of activities including the My Life My Community Hub every Saturday for adults with a learning disability and/or Autism, the Mencap Community Café, gym sessions, travel training and holidays.
Commonside Community Development Trust are providing a drop-in community café, a range of activities for older and vulnerable residents in Pollards Hill and a hot two-course meal Monday to Friday. Commonside Trust also provide a base for the Ukraine Welcome Hub and Skill Up Support.
Association for Polish Family (PFA) provides support for the Polish and EE communities in Merton mainly through the provision of information, support, and non-accredited advice, including outreach sessions. PFA also works closely with Commonside Community Development Trust to provide the Ukrainian Welcome Hub.
Wimbledon Guild are providing a preventative, strengths-based Wellbeing Support service, offering a holistic assessment and 1:1 support for vulnerable, isolated older people with limited connections in the community. Wimbledon Guild also provides practical help and support such as small and cash grants, talking therapies (individual and group support) a range of activities to help people get active and feel connected through befriending, volunteering and group activities. There is also a café Monday to Friday for people to pop in and meet people.
For older people who would like encouragement to get physically active look to the Merton Moves Scheme run by Wimbledon Guild, which provides six weeks coaching to find and take up a new activity.
Preventative Activities
Detailed below are other organisations that are funded by Adult Social Care and Public Health to prevent, reduce and delay the need for health and social care. There are many other preventative activities and can be found on the Merton Adult Support Services Directory, or support customers to contact their local leisure or community centre.
Attic Theatre Company are providing two weekly singing groups and in addition a dance and movement workshop for people with Dementia and their carers.
Friends In Helier are providing a range of activities, outreach support and outings for older people to socialise, join in with activities and eat a hot meal together.
The Merton and Morden Guild of Social Service are providing 16 preventative activities per week for older people in Merton.
Merton Community Transport are providing an excursion club (two trips per month) supporting members of the community struggling with loneliness and isolation to places of interest.
Northeast Mitcham Community Association are providing a range of activities for older people which includes 2 lunch clubs and a falls prevention group.
The ‘Get up and Go’ programme run a range of fitness activities for those with mild frailty living in East Merton and Morden. Activities range from seated exercise to pilates to new age Kurling.
Community Dementia Services
The Community Dementia Service, provided by Alzheimer's Society is commissioned by Adult Social Care to provide both hub based and community support and in the last year has helped around 300 carers and 100 people with Dementia with a variety of support including hub and community-based activities, wellbeing assessments and support planning, information, advice, signposting and education.
The Alzheimer’s Society also co-ordinate the Dementia Action Alliance and encourage local businesses and organisations to become dementia friendly. For more information about support available via Alzheimer's Society and other local support, including Council Tax support, please see: Dementia services | Merton Council
Support for Carers – Carers First Merton
Support for Carers (commissioned by Adult Social Care and provided by Carers First Merton in partnership with Merton Mencap) provides preventative support to Adult Carers (people over 18 caring for another adult) in Merton to access a range of interventions, assessments, support plans, reviews in accordance with the Care Act and information, advice and guidance specific to the caring role. Carers First Merton also support access to activities, training, workshops, online and in-person support groups and events to assist and provide support to Carers in their caring role. Carers First Merton also works with local and national partners to signpost to and make referrals on behalf of Carers to ensure that they receive the support that they need. Carers First Merton also support Young Carers from the ages of 5-18 years old.
To refer a Carer, or for further information please contact Carers First Merton
Tel: 0300 303 1555, during office hours (10am-5pm Monday to Friday)
Website: www.carersfirst.org.uk/
Email: hello@carersfirst.org.uk
Warm and Well Programme
The Warm and Well Programme is a partner initiative between the Council, Thinking Works, Age UK Merton and Wimbledon Guild. The programme aims to expand its current offer to support more residents facing fuel poverty and the impact on their wellbeing due to the increased cost of living.
The service provides:
- Warm and Well Project co-ordination to raise awareness of energy saving advice and support;
- Information and Advice to maximise income and access to relevant benefits;
- Energy efficiency advice for homeowners and support to access larger grants if eligible;
- Free heating checks and repairs to eligible residents;
- Free handyperson service to eligible residents (charge for materials);
- Cash and small grants to residents in financial need.
Use the above links to refer a person to any part of the warm and well programme, or contact Merton Community Hub. For more information:
Tel: 020 8946 0735
Email: info@wimbledonguild.co.uk
Befriending
If someone (aged 65+) is lonely or isolated, you can contact Merton’s befriending scheme run by Age UK Merton and Wimbledon Guild. They can match people up with a volunteer based on shared interests for a weekly befriending visit. There is also a small project for people with mental health issues to access befriending support.
Merton Talking Therapies
Merton Talking Therapies, iapt (swlstg.nhs.uk)
The service provides free confidential psychological and wellbeing interventions for common mental health problems (anxiety disorders or depression).
Referrals are accepted from people aged 18 years and over who are Merton residents, or non-Merton residents who are registered with a Merton GP. This includes those in temporary accommodation in the borough.
Self-referrals are welcome.
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 for whom it is intended can best understand and make use of it.
If you feel the person for whom the information and advice is intended will need support to understand it then you should:
- Consider whether the person has anyone appropriate who can help them to understand it;
- 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
- Consider the benefit of independent advocacy.
Under the Care Act the Local Authority has a duty to not only provide information and advice where it is needed, but to ensure that the information and advice it provides has been effective.
Therefore, when information and advice has been provided you should agree appropriate arrangements to follow up with the person to whom it was given in order to review how effective it has been.
The timescales for this follow up should reflect the individual circumstances and level of risk.
Where you are making arrangements for someone else to follow up on the information and advice you have given (rather than following up on it yourself) you must make sure that you have recorded this in a way that will ensure the person follows up on it at the agreed time.
The Local Authority has a common law and legal duty to safeguard the confidentiality of all personal information. As an employee of the Local Authority you are bound contractually to respect the confidentiality of any information that you may come into contact with. Under no circumstances should such information be divulged or passed to any persons or organisation in any form unless you have authorisation to do so.
All information sharing that takes place must be in line with data protection legislation (namely the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018) and local policy.
The Caldicott Principles must also be regarded. The Caldicott Principles are a set of principles that apply to the use of confidential information within health and social care organisations and when such information is shared with other organisations and between individuals, both for individual care and for other purposes. For further information, see: The Caldicott Principles.
Any unauthorised disclosure of confidential information may result in disciplinary action of individual prosecution under the Data Protection Act 2018.
For further information and guidance see: Providing Information about a Person or Carer
It is important that the person making contact speaks to the right practitioner at the right time. Sometimes you may find that you are not the most appropriate practitioner to manage the contact.
When the person making the contact requests specifically to speak to or be contacted by a particular person 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 is allocated to the practitioner they have requested to speak to.
You should not transfer a telephone call to a named worker if it is clear that the worker is not allocated to the person. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person 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 colleague or manager who may know.
If you know when the practitioner is likely to become available you should:
- Inform the person of this;
- 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;
- 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;
- Agree with the person what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact at the expected time; and
- Make a proportionate record of all the above.
If it is not clear when the practitioner will become available you should:
- Inform the person of this;
- Leave the practitioner a message alerting them to the contact, any action undertaken and what information has been given to the person;
- 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
- Agree with the person what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
- 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 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. This will not be helpful to the worker or to the person as they will not be dealing with the right person to resolve the contact.
Before transferring the contact you should:
- 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 you have agreed with a manager how the contact will be managed;
- 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
- 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 colleague or manager who may know.
If the practitioner is not available within a reasonable timeframe for the action indicated by the contact you should:
- 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 if contact has been made with them;
- 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;
- When the practitioner is not available within any timeframes indicted in the written contact or for more than a few days inform the person making the contact of this;
- Agree with the person what they should do if the practitioner does not make contact within an agreed timeframe; and
- Make a proportionate record of all the above.
Reablement is one of a range of services available where the focus is on the prevention, delay or reduction of needs. However other prevention services may also be beneficial alongside reablement and should also be explored. These could include health services, Occupational Therapy or Telecare.
Under Section 2 of the Care Act the Local Authority has a duty to prevent needs for Care and Support/Support whenever it identifies an opportunity to do so.
See: Preventing Needs for Care and Support to read more about the duty to prevent needs for Care and Support, including the types of prevention services recognised by the Care Act, when to provide prevention services and how to charge for prevention services.
It is important that when supporting a person or a carer, you explore all preventative opportunities within the voluntary and community sector before thinking about social care support.
For information about these opportunities, please refer to the ‘Providing Information and Advice’ section above.
In addition to the Voluntary and Community Sector, the following are links to health and social care services in Merton that may also be able to assist in preventing, reducing or delaying the needs:
Equipment and minor adaptations
Staying independent at home: Personal alarms and home monitoring – Mascot Telecare | Merton Council
Reablement service: short term help at home | Merton Council
Occupational therapy | Merton Council
Substance Misuse Support
People over the age of 18 who would like support with alcohol or drug use problems can contact Via Merton for free. Via Merton provide specialist drug or alcohol advice, support and treatment.
Tel: 0300 303 4610
Email: Merton@viaorg.uk
Address: 7-8 Langdale Parade, Mitcham, CR4 2F
People can also use Merton’s Drinkchecker service to quickly review their alcohol use and get tips about reducing the risk of alcohol related health problems.
If, as part of any conversation or information gathering you become concerned that a vulnerable adult or child is experiencing, or at risk of abuse or neglect you must respond appropriately by raising a concern.
See Safeguarding Adults, which also includes information about how to raise a children's safeguarding concern.
If you are concerned that an adult or child is in imminent danger from abuse or neglect, or that a criminal act has taken place you should contact the police by dialing 999.
Whenever the outcome of a contact or referral is that the person will be involved in any adult Care and Support process (including a reablement assessment or safeguarding) the Local Authority has a duty under the Care Act to make an independent advocate available to the person when:
- There is no appropriate other person to support and represent them; and
- They feel that the person would experience substantial difficulty being fully involved in the Care and Support process without support.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
See: Advocacy Decision Support Tool.
The Local Authority also has a power (but not a duty) to make advocacy available in other situations on a case by case basis if it deems this appropriate and is able to do so. This could include advocacy to support a person to understand information and advice, or advocacy to support a person to explore possible options available to them.
Having substantial difficulty is not the same as lacking mental capacity.
See: Determining Substantial Difficulty for information about how to determine substantial difficulty.
See the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Resource and Practice Toolkit, with guidance about assessing capacity and making best interest decisions.
An appropriate person for general representation purposes is not the same as an appropriate person for independent advocacy under the Care Act.
See: An Appropriate Other Person for information about the difference and how to establish whether there is already an appropriate person.
The role of an independent advocate appointed under the Care Act is not the same as the role of a general advocate or any other type of advocate (for example an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate or an Independent Mental Health Advocate).
An independent advocate appointed under the Care Act must both facilitate and ensure the involvement of the person with substantial difficulty in the Care and Support process that is taking place.
For information about the ways in which an independent advocate should fulfil their role, see: The Role of an Independent Advocate.
People who lack capacity will likely be legally entitled to advocacy under both the Care Act and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
The Care Act statutory guidance recognises that it would not normally be appropriate or practical for a person to have 2 advocates and gives the Local Authority the responsibility to make a decision about the best type of advocacy support.
There are various factors that should influence this decision (such as existing rapport with an advocate or whether any important decisions are likely to be the outcome of the Care and Support process) and the Local Authority must ensure that whatever it decides, it does not deny the person any of the specialist advocacy skills they need or are entitled to.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
People eligible for an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) under the Mental Health Act 1983 will likely be entitled to advocacy under the Care Act.
The Care Act statutory guidance recognises that it would not normally be appropriate or practical for a person to have 2 advocates and gives the Local Authority the responsibility to make a decision about the best type of advocacy support.
There are various factors that should influence this decision (such as existing rapport with an advocate or the likely outcome of the Care and Support process) and the Local Authority must ensure that whatever it decides, it does not deny the person any of the specialist advocacy skills they need or are entitled to.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support effective and consistent decision making about when/which advocacy support should be made available.
The advocacy referral can be made at any time and should be made without delay as soon as the duty applies.
Regardless of whether or not independent advocacy is available in the local area the duty to provide it still applies. A failure to do so is a breach of this duty and of the law. It is the role of commissioners to ensure that advocacy services are in place and available when required, and it is the role of practitioners to make timely referrals to advocates to prevent unnecessary delays in the meeting of its duty.
If you are aware that advocacy support is required and is not yet available you must notproceed to carry out any Care and Support process (including a reablement assessment) until it is in place.
In some circumstances urgent interim measures may need to be agreed without an advocate in place in order to reduce immediate risk to the person from inaction. However, Care and Support processes that will decide long term and important decisions must not be carried out without advocacy support.
The duty upon the Local Authority is to make independent advocacy support available to any person who requires it. Once made available the duty is met.
If a person decides that they do not wish to engage in the advocacy support that has been made available to them they do not have to do so, but the Local Authority must still provide it.
The Local Authority is expected under the Care Act to support the person to understand the role of an advocate and promote its benefit to them so as to reduce the likelihood that they will not engage.
Regular monitoring of the reablement plan should be incorporated into any reablement service provided. This is essential to ensure that the service is working as intended, and to make changes required quickly to promote and optimise independent functioning.
The monitoring mechanism in reablement must be responsive and consider any need to hold a review of the plan outside of any scheduled review:
- Whenever the person whose plan it is requests it;
- Whenever a carer of the person whose plan it is requests it;
- Whenever the service providing the reablement requests it; and
- Whenever new information is provided that indicates a review would be beneficial in optimising reablement.
If the person, carer or anyone else request a review of the reablement plan this must be considered. The Care Act permits anyone to make a request for any type of review and places a duty on the Local Authority to carry out a review whenever it is deemed reasonable to do so.
Where the outcome decision is for the person's case to be allocated to an individual worker to establish reablement needs this allocation should take place in a timely way so as to:
- Avoid any unnecessary delays to the person;
- Reduce the risk of a deterioration in the situation; and
- Optimise the benefit of the reablement intervention.
Where there is a significant number of people awaiting allocation there should be a fair and consistent prioritisation process in place that takes into account:
- The level of risk;
- The level of need;
- Current support in place and the sustainability/effectiveness of this;
- The urgency;
- The likelihood of deterioration; and
- The potential for fluctuation.
An element of monitoring should be incorporated into any allocation process to ensure that you remain aware of every person's situation and are able to respond appropriately to any changes or need to re-prioritise allocation.
The Care Act recognises that each worker (regardless of whether or not they have a professional qualification) will possess specific skills, knowledge and experience that will enable them to carry out different Care and Support functions or work with particular people well.
Because of this there is no expectation that a particular role should carry out a particular function; instead the Local Authority should allocate tasks to the most appropriate person for the job.
Allocation decisions should take into account:
- The skills, knowledge and experience of the worker in carrying out the function or process required;
- The skills, knowledge and experience of the worker in working with the particular needs of the person (for example health needs or communication needs); and
- The views and wishes of the person themselves in relation to the skills required of the worker and who they feel would best support them.
tri.x has developed a tool that can be used as required to support allocation decisions.
If it becomes clear that a reablement assessment or service may not be the most appropriate and proportionate way of establishing or preventing, reducing or delaying needs the case will need to be transferred.
For example:
- The person's needs have changed since the time of referral and they may no longer be well enough to engage with reablement at that time;
- From the information gathered it is clear that the person would not be able to engage with a reablement service;
- The person is not ordinarily resident in the Local Authority area (so not eligible for reablement); or
- The person no longer consents to reablement.
Any process for transferring the referral to another service area or teams should be as simple and seamless as possible. It should involve the person and the potential services with the aim of reaching a shared agreement. Any transfer should not negatively impact the person or put them at risk through the delay of any Care and Support needs being met.
Though not a requirement, it would be prudent to apply the same criteria that the Care Act requires to be applied when deciding the most appropriate worker:
- The views and wishes of the person about which service/team would best support them must be regarded;
- The service/team must possess the skills, knowledge and competence to carry out the anticipated Care and Support functions; and
- The service/team must possess the skills, knowledge and competence to work with the particular person in question.
tri.x as developed a tool that can be used a required to support consistent decision making about team suitability.
See: Team Suitability Decision Support Tool.
The service area or team receiving the case should make effective use of the information gathered thus far and not make the person (or anyone else previously consulted) repeat information unnecessarily.
Effective reablement often involves an element of joint working. For example with:
- Occupational Therapy;
- Social Work;
- A health professional;
- A service provider.
The Care Act encourages joint working within organisations and across organisations, permitting anyone carrying out a Care and Support process to make any arrangements it deems necessary in order to facilitate joint working.
Where the Local Authority requests another party work jointly in some way to benefit the person with Care and Support needs that party has a duty to co-operate with the request (unless by doing so they will be prevented from carrying out their own duties under the Care Act or other legislation).
For further information about the duty to co-operate under the Care Act, see: Co-Operation.
Any decision to request joint work should be made with the person (or their representative). Where the person is unable to provide consent to joint work decisions should be made in their best interests.
The need to involve others should be identified at an early stage, preferably before the reablement service begins. This will allow:
- Any equipment or assistive technology to be in place at the time reablement starts; so that
- Reablement workers can support the person (and their carer) to use the equipment safely and with optimum effect during reablement; and
- The risks to reablement from complexities in the person's situation or additional needs to be reduced.
The process of requesting joint work during reablement should be as simple as possible to allow for a swift response.
Joint work requests should be made in the manner preferred by the service, team or professional to which the request is being made. This may or may not take the form of a referral.
The request should explain clearly the nature of the joint work required and any specific skills, knowledge and competence requirements to support allocation.
When you have been asked to work jointly with another service, team or professional you should contact them to confirm your involvement and discuss the most effective way to work together. The things you should establish include:
- The work they are doing/will be doing/have done and whether they have any information that you need to know or can use to avoid duplication;
- Whether there are opportunities to co-ordinate systems and processes and, if so how this will be managed;
- What the expectations are in terms of joint-working (for example will you be expected to carry out a joint assessment, meet with the person together, produce joint records or just consult and share information);
- What the anticipated outcome of the joint work is (for example joint funding of support, on-going joint-work to monitor);
- What does the person with care and support needs know about the joint-work to be carried out (and if they don't know who and how should this be explained);
- Who will be the primary contact for the person (or their representative) to go to with any queries; and
- Who will be responsible for communicating progress and decisions to the person.
See: Joint Work for further practice guidance about effective joint working.
Last Updated: November 14, 2024
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