Adapting to the Future
Audit Scotland reviewed the management of community equipment and adaptations. Its report Adapting to the Future: the Management of Community Equipment and Adaptations was published in August 2004. The main findings of the report were:
- community equipment and adaptation services make a positive difference to people's lives
- they can enhance a person's quality of life and prevent more costly interventions
- information about services can be difficult to access and in some cases people may have to wait a long time for equipment and adaptations
- services are fragmented and the split in responsibility for equipment and adaptations to meet a social care or nursing need is unhelpful for users and providers
- the lack of good performance information on cost, management and quality of services is limiting the evaluation and development of community equipment and adaptations
- the lack of formal operational policies and procedures in many places exposes users and providers to risks
In response to a recommendation in the report the Executive is reviewing the national guidance on roles and responsibilities in relation to community equipment and adaptations to reflect new ways of working promoted by the Joint Future Agenda, local government reorganisation and developments in technology.
A guidance review group is taking this work forward and will also produce a pathway through the guidance for people using equipment and adaptations and for those commissioning them. This will form the basis of a new mechanism to consider the impact of new policies on this revised framework as they emerge.
Guidance Review Group
Since October 2006, the work of the group has been taken forward by the Equipment and Adaptations Advisory Group (EAAG).