Chief social worker and adult PSWs issue assessment guidance

Chief social worker for adults Lyn Romeo and principal social workers have issued guidance on carrying out proportionate assessments under the Care Act 2014.

The guide comes in the wake of Department of Health and Social Care funding designed to streamline the assessment process, including through virtual processes, delegating assessments to third parties and making more use of non-qualified staff to help deal with social worker shortages.

The latter point prompted criticism from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England, which warned that it risked diluting the social work role.

The new guide, co-authored by the Adult Principal Social Worker Network, addresses this issue, saying that “ensuring the optimum ratio of qualified staff to other social care staff” carrying out assesssments “will be essential” in responding to people with care and support needs in a timely way.

When social workers should carry out assessments

Social workers should focus on “supporting people with more complex needs and circumstances”, it adds.

However, it stresses that those social work assistants, apprentices or social care assessors carrying out assessments should have “access to supervision from regulated professionals who can ensure assessments are of good quality and comply with the Care Act”.

The guide provides a checklist for councils in managing cases where assessments are delegated to third-party bodies, such as NHS trusts, providers or voluntary sector organisations, as is permitted by section 79 of the Care Act.

This should include clarifying the oversight arrangements for delegated assessments, including “some form of validation by a social worker or occupational therapist and audit arrangements”.

In an introduction to the guide, Romeo said it was designed to help practitioners, councils and NHS trusts “consider the positive lessons” from practising under Covid-19, including through the use of technology, such as video assessments.

Care Act requirements

Regulations under the Care Act 2014 require councils to ensure that an assessment is “appropriate and proportionate to the needs and circumstances of the individual to whom it relates”.

The act’s statutory guidance states this means the assessment can be carried out in a range of formats, depending on the person’s needs or preferences: face-to-face, online, over the phone, jointly with other agencies, in combination with the assessment of a carer or as a supported self-assesssment.

Echoing the statutory guidance, the new guide says face-to-face assessments are “necessary and appropriate if there are complex needs or safeguarding concerns”.

It says virtual assessments may be proportionate “if all of the following conditions apply”:

• the situation is fairly straightforward, with no coercion, neglect or safeguarding concerns;
• there is a stable internet connection and access to technology;
• the person has capacity to engage in the assessment, and their communication skills are good.

In its introduction to the guide, the leadership team of the Adult Principal Social Worker Network said that proportionality “must not be used only as a vehicle to deliver financial efficiencies – it is imperative that the right support is provided at the right time, determined in partnership with the person”.

“Our role is to help people live the lives they want,” it added.