The role of the care manager needs to be radically redesigned in order to make best use of social work skills and the new environment of personalisation.
The Social Work Rescript is a way of clarifying the process by which care managers - usually social workers - work with people to develop good support solutions.
The key parts are reflected in this diagram:
The Social Work Rescript was developed by Simon Duffy and Kate Fulton as part of their work on developing a new architecture for personalisation within Yorkshire & Humber.
DO integrate with other initiatives - these changes are identical in essence to other initiatives like ‘think family’ and ‘personal health budgets’.
Do demonstrate belief - in people’s own ability to assess and judge their situation with your support.
DO tell people what they are likely to be entitled to - quickly, without delay or long-drawn out processes.
DO be honest, realistic and objective - if someone lacks capacity and needs either support or representation then its your job to make that clear and set things up.
DO use commonsense - if something’s urgent then deal with it with urgency.
DON’T underestimate the capacity of individuals or families - remember people may have many problems but they also have many assets.
DO give people clear information - about their budget, their options and any rules that apply.
DO tell people if you cannot sign-off a plan and why - ideally all such reasons should be clear in the rules at the outset.
DO tell people directly if you’ve changed your mind about capacity - and someone else needs to do the planning - just give objective reasons.
DO let other people help - encourage people to get help from friends, family, community organisations and particularly anyone you think can share useful experience - peer support.
DO let service provider’s help - at every stage - as long as people know they are under no obligation to choose a particular provider then people should be free to engage, talk to, plan with and get support from providers.
DON’T be vague - or suggest things will be tricky or discourage people from having a go.
DON’T assume that self-direction can’t be done quickly - say as part of hospital discharge, just be really clear about options.
DON’T muddle up the size of the package with the capacity to plan - people with low needs can lack capacity or support and vice versa.
DON’T make people do complicated plans for the sake of it - simple is best - complex is only required in complex cases and the plans can be developed after the package is in place (in fact sometimes plans can only really be developed after the package is agreed).
DON’T send plans to panels - unless they are over budget.
DON’T reject plans because they are unusual - only if they are unsafe or over budget.
DON’T solve all the problems yourself - if the person can problem solve with support (it simply reiterates the idea that you are the ‘one with solutions’).
DO ask people what is working as well as what is not working - and explore what to do with what you learn.
Do encourage learning about how all aspects of a persons life can be improved developed - not just a focus on the money i.e. strengthening relationships, control, individual strengths and talents and nurturing inner resilience.
DO encourage people to improve their own support arrangements.
DO take what you are learning - positive and negative - and use it to improve local developments.
DO ask people if they will share their experience with others - and make sure you follow up by linking people together.
DON’T gather information that isn’t going to be used.
The publisher is The Centre for Welfare Reform.
Social Work Rescript © Simon Duffy and Kate Fulton 2011.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
