31 March 1993

Dear Colleague

COMMUNITY CARE: LIAISON BETWEEN THE BENEFITS AGENCY (BA) AND SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENTS

Summary

1. This Circular advises of steps being taken to improve liaison arrangements between Social Work Departments (SWDs) and Benefits Agency (BA) offices. Similar advice is being issued by the BA to its district managers. Existing liaison arrangements are described in Circular SWSG13/92, dated 31 December 1992 and entitled "National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1992: Regulations and Guidance".

Background

2. From 1 April 1993 SWDs will be responsible for making arrangements for people who need public financial support in order to enter residential care and nursing homes. Instead of the higher levels of Income Support, residents newly placed from 1 April in independent sector homes who are eligible for Income Support will receive normal levels of Income Support including Residential Allowance. Normally SWDs will contract with home owners to meet the home’s charge in full, and will seek reimbursement from the resident using newly introduced charging assessment rules largely based on the way resources are treated for Income Support purposes. Alternatively, if the resident, the SWD and the home owner agree, the SWD will assess the resident’s contribution and the resident will pay this directly to the home with the SWD paying the balance. These new charging assessment rules will also be applied to the residents currently in local authority residential care homes. In order for these arrangements to work successfully it is essential that good lines of liaison are established and maintained at a senior level between BA District Offices and SWDs.

3. In 1993-94, SWDs in England, Wales and Scotland are expected to be approached by around 130,000 people in total who would otherwise have entered independent sector residential care and nursing homes using the higher levels of Income Support under the current system. If assessed by the SWD as needing residential accommodation and placed in such homes as a result, many of these residents will be entitled to Income Support, either as a new claim or at a changed level, and so will have to undergo means-test assessments for both BA and SWD purposes. Subsequent changes of circumstances will affect both assessments. Enquiries that BA District Offices and SWD will wish to make of each other about these residents are likely to increase gradually through the year as the total number of local authority placements rises, leading to an increasing need for sound liaison arrangements.

Model Service Level Agreement

4. In order to help facilitate this, a working group of BA, local authority associations including COSLA, DSS, Department of Health and Scottish Office representatives are currently giving consideration to the development of a model service level agreement on procedures for liaison and exchange of information which will have common application to BA District Offices and SWDs and service provision to clients/customers. The intention is that the model service level agreement will assist BA District Offices and SWDs to develop:

4.1 an overall liaison structure establishing for instance, client/customer services, administrative procedures, targets, baseline expectations and staff training arrangements;

4.2 arrangements enabling the exchange of information between BA District Offices and SWDs (subject to the normal disclosure of information rules and the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984).

5. In addition to this, the feasibility of enhancing the Income Support award notification will be considered. This could then be used by SWD as a primary source of information.

Immediate Action

6. In the meantime both BA District Offices and SWDs should aim to work together to ensure that undue pressure is not placed on vulnerable customers/clients to provide information. It is essential that BA offices and SWDs make only reasonable demands on each other. This could include some, or all, of the following arrangements, providing local circumstances permit:

- single contact points responsible for liaison are arranged within each BA District and SWD at a senior level

- where possible, clients/customers do not have to provide duplicate information about resources to both the BA and SWD

- SWDs identify residents with potential Income Support entitlement and aid their clients with the completion of the claim form - BA District Offices to supply stocks of claim forms to SWDs

- where it is not reasonable to expect the client/customer to provide the information and the customer has given consent for disclosure of information, BA offices can provide details of the Income Support assessment to the SWD

- SWDs supply BA offices with information about changes affecting social security benefit entitlement (eg hospitalisation).

Contact Point

7. Please direct any enquiries about this circular to Mr Trevor Hall, Social Work Services Group, Room 44, James Craig Walk, Edinburgh EH1 3BA

(telephone 0131 244 5455).

Yours faithfully

GAVIN ANDERSON