Liverpool City Council - Practitioner information

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Practitioner information

Easycare

The Easycare forms are available from the intranet and the forms being replaced by Easycare will be removed with effect from 3 April 2006. If you have any old form templates stored on your computer, please delete them.  

The following summary is of the documentation to be used from now on:

• Easycare Contact Form - will replace LCC referral form 
• Easycare Overview Assessment form - replaces old initial & complex assessment forms
• Easycare Summary of Needs/Action - to summarise the assessment
• Easycare Risk Indicators - this is an addition to the LCC Level 2 Risk Assessment Form.  This is an indicator and is the evidence brought forward from the assessment to assist in formulation of Care Plan
• LCC Financial Assessment Form - continue to use this form as you would have previously
• LCC Carers Assessment Form - continue to use this form as you would have previously
• LCC Care Plan - continue to use this document
• Specialist Forms - continue to use any of your teams specialist documentation but only if the overview form does not allow you to assess adequately the service users needs (e.g.. OT form).
• Therefore the forms that are no longer to be used are the initial and complex assessment forms.  

Eligibility for person held record

Not all customers will receive a full personal file - known as a Person Held Record. These will only be given out to customers who have very complex needs which are likely to be over a period of time and will therefore have the intervention of a number of professionals in their care.

In order to assist you in determining who should have a Person Held Record (PHR) the following eligibility criteria has been determined.  

A PHR should only be given to a customer if:
 

• They are likely to receive intervention from more than 3 professionals (excluding their GP) for a period longer than 3 months;
  
• Health and social care professionals will still share information around the care of those customers who do not qualify for a PHR and assessment documentation must still be left in these customers' homes.  

You will be provided with a thin red plastic wallet for this purpose and should still explain the changes to these customers providing them with a customer leaflet.

Hints and tips completing forms:

• Always ask open ended questions e.g.. Are you having any problems dressing? 
  
• Listen, and complete the forms in a basic manner as if the person were writing themselves e.g.. I am having trouble getting dressed by myself
  
• Write clearly and neatly, without using jargon or abbreviations so that the customer, carers and other professionals can read and understand
  
• Before you begin to complete assessment documentation have a generic chat around service user's problems and any other professionals involved in care - this will assist you in identifying which sections of the form you need to complete and whether customers qualifies for PHR.  

Assessment process
A summary of the processes for undertaking an assessment is available.  Please view the summary of process.


Information sharing
In most circumstances customer information should be shared only with the informed consent of customer. This should not be a significant barrier if the practitioner is working in partnership with the customer.
  
Copies of relevant documents should also be provided and it is important that:

• all practitioners operate within the Data Protection Act 1998
  
• consent is obtained where it is sensible and practical. This applies even when the Data Protection Act does not demand it, operating with consent is good practice
  
• practitioners work with customers to agree how information is recorded, used and shared; this must include making them aware of circumstances where information may be shared without consent and where confidentiality cannot be maintained
  
• if the information held or shared is sensitive or beyond what might normally be expected, where possible, consent should be obtained in writing, e.g., through a signature on the SAP recording form and, if there is on-going contact, reviewed regularly.   

Information sharing without Consent

It may be necessary to share information without obtaining consent from the customer when: 

• the disclosure prevents the customer from committing a criminal offence that could place others in jeopardy or places the assessor or any other person at risk of collusion
  
• the customer is at risk of significant harm or harming someone else
  
• the customer needs urgent medical treatment
  
• information is required as part of a legal proceeding e.g. by order of the Court
  
• information is requested by the police if investigating a serious crime
  
• sharing that information is required to undertake a statutory function.  

Where these situations apply and it is necessary to share information without consent, the reasons for doing so should be recorded. The record must contain details of any third parties and full details of all the information or evidence they have been given.