Single Assessment Process
The Single Assessment Process is to help ensure that all adults
receive appropriate, effective and timely responses to their health
and social care needs. Single Assessment means a person centred
approach to assessment and that Health and Social Care
Professionals will work more closely together to deliver better
services for you.
Why is it needed?
The Government looked at how people, up and down the country,
were being assessed for health and social care services and found
that sometimes there can be difficulties when health and social
care agencies need to work together. Some of these difficulties
were:
- Because information was not being shard fully, problems were
being missed even though people had regular contact with health and
social care services.
Different health and social care services were doing their own
assessments, often asking people the same questions over and over
again.
- Different computer systems did not talk to each other. So they
failed to share information which also forced the same information
to be collected again and again.
- These problems reduced people’s confidence in the assessment
because they felt they were not being listened to and their view
not fully taken into account.
To help tackle these difficulties, the Government has told all
health and social care services across the country that they must
have a Single Assessment Process. The Government has also given
some guidance on what the standard features of the Single
Assessment Process should be.
How will it affect you?
When you first make contact with Health and Social Care
professionals, we need to ensure that you are given every
opportunity to inform us what you believe your needs are. The
information you provide will assist the Health and Social Care
professional to decide the best way to meet your needs.
The Single Assessment Process still means some important changes
to the way health and social care professionals take account for
your views and needs, the way professionals work together and the
way they arrange services for you.
One of the big changes for us will be that the Single Assessment
Process is split into stages:
- Contact Assessment – This is the first stage
when you come into contact with the service. We collect basic
information, such as your name, address, next of kin and name of
your GP and or carer.
- Overview Assessment – This assessment includes
extra information, such as your previous medical history and social
care needs. This will help us to understand what problems you are
facing and identify the services that may be needed.
- Specialist Assessment – This allows an
in-depth assessment of specific needs e.g. Social, Medical,
Mobility
- Comprehensive Assessment – This means that a
variety of professionals will work together over a period of time
to ensure that you package of care includes all aspects of your
health and social care needs, for example, housing, day care or
medical or surgical intervention.
We are aiming to try and make sure we only ask for basic
information once, that we talk to each other more and use simple
language when we do, so that we are less likely to miss
problems.
Straightforward requests should be handled with the minimum of
fuss whilst people with more complicated needs should be quickly
passed on for Specialist or Comprehensive Assessments. A
comprehensive assessment should take place before Long Term Care is
considered to make sure we have given every opportunity for you to
be supported with in your own home.
What is a Current Summary Record?
Health and Social Care professionals will work together to
develop a Current Summary Record. This will set out what
services will be provided to meet your specific needs, as well as
helping you to maintain your independence.
How we share and hold your
records
You will be given copies of the Contact and Overview
Assessments that have taken place along with the care plan. The
information collected will assist with the communication between
all professionals involved in your care. With your consent, we will
also ensure that any health or social care professional you come
into contact with kept up to date with your care you need.
Passing on your information will help others involved in your
care to understand your needs without having to ask you the same
questions again. However, you must give your agreement for this to
happen. Confidential personal information may be recorded on paper
or on electronic media and is subject to the Data Protection Act
1998. You can give your consent to your information being shared to
others involved in your care as necessary.
You can withhold your consent, which means the information you
have shared will stay with the assessment worker, this could lead
to you being asked the same information again. Refusing consent
will not affect the services you may be offered. You can give
partial consent. This means you can say if there are particular
answers in the assessment you do not want to share, or if there are
people you wish to exclude form seeing your information. This will
be recorded and your wishes respected.
What if I have someone who helps care for me?
The Single Assessment Process helps us to identify those people
who play an important role in helping you to live independently by
providing you with support. This support can be provided by a
relative, friend or neighbour. The will be offered their own
separate assessment.
Problems
One of the problems we face is that computer systems are not
able to talk to each other yet. So we are also working to improve
information about assessments, services, charges and complaints so
that you can make more informed choices.
What if I am unhappy with my assessment?
You have a right to complain, if you are unhappy with your
assessment. Each service has its own leaflet explaining how to
complain. Just ask for a copy.