What Should a Social Care Plan Look Like?

Why might it be of interest?

This document is key to your young person getting the care and support they need to achieve their outcome and anyone involved in their care should be familiar with the support plan.  It should also identify any risks, the likelihood of the risk happening, how serious it would be, how it is managed and therefore the overall risk.

If your young person is receiving direct payments to meet their care and support needs they can use the money in any reasonable way to meet their needs as described in this plan.  Direct Payments are intended to be used in flexible and creative ways to meet the needs identified in the support plan.

It’s not possible to give you an actual example as the format will vary from LA to LA, and depending on if it is an initial assessment or a review and how long it has been between assessment and review or between reviews.  But we can give you an idea of what you should expect to see in the care and support plan.

You might also want to take a look at Social Care Outcomes – Good and Bad Examples and our documents about the Care Act Assessment and preparing for it..

If your young person is eligible for a care package from adult social care do be aware that if their income is enough then they will be required to make a contribution.  You might like to refer to our Minimum Income Guarantee document for more information about how this works.

 

Care Plan – Basic information

The care plan should include name, address, other contact details, etc for the young person.  It should also include next of kin name and contact details.

It is likely to include whether the young person speaks english, their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and whether the person being assessed is able to contribute to the assessment.

It may include GP details and it should include the name and details of everyone involved in the assessment.  The young person being assessed is likely to be referred to as a Service User.

Background / Your story / About me

There may be a section, a little like section A in the EHCP, which is intended to paint a picture of the young person.  There is no format for this section or what might be included.  Things it could include:

• Their diagnosis
• Where they live
• Where they go to school/college
• How they communicate
• Things they like
• Things they don’t like
• There might be examples of how they need to be supported
• The support they currently have
• Therapies they receive
• About the family, friends, etc

The outcomes assessed

There are 10 outcomes that the young person’s ability to meet is assessed for:

• Managing and maintaining nutrition
• Maintaining personal hygiene
• Managing toilet needs
• Being appropriately clothed
• Being able to make use of the home safely
• Maintaining a habitable home environment
• Developing and maintaining family or other personal relationships
• Accessing and engaging in work, training, education or volunteering
• Making use of necessary facilities or services in the local community, including public transport and recreational facilities or services

The first care plan should include information about the assessment for each outcome.  It might look like this:

Maintaining personal hygiene, toilet needs and being appropriately clothed

Strengths, area of need and what the person would like to achieve

• Jenny requires support to maintain her personal hygiene, getting dressed and choosing what to wear and with personal hygiene after using the toilet

How is this need currently being managed?

• Jenny is supported with her personal hygiene to have a strip wash by her mother, she is compliant but does not engage with the process. She is independent with her toilet needs although requires support with personal hygiene and prompts to wash her hands.  Jenny also requires support in choosing appropriate clothing and getting dressed

Impact on the person’s wellbeing

• Jenny’s wellbeing would be negatively affected without this support

Eligibility summary (for each of the above:  personal hygiene, toilet needs, appropriately clothed)

• Is the person able to manage personal hygiene: yes / no
• Is this impacting their wellbeing: yes / no
• Is this an eligible need: yes / no
• What is the extent of the need: high / medium / low / not applicable
• How much of this need is already met by the person’s own resources?

Fully / partially / not at all / not applicable

The last point – how much of this need is already met by the person’s own resources? – means can they meet this outcome without any help?  You are not part of your young person’s resources and neither is anyone else who helps.  That includes prompting and supervision.

Details of each care and support need

This section may reflect the outcomes assessed above but it may also include other outcomes important to the young person.  It should include, in some format or other, what the care and support need is; agreed outcomes; what is working well; what’s not working well (or needs to be changed); is the outcome being met.

It might look like this:

My care and support need:  Maintaining a habitable home

Agreed outcomes:  To be supported to maintain a clean and tidy environment, do the laundry, change my bedding, shopping and to be supported to budget and to manage my money

What’s working well:  Jenny does not carry out any tasks involving keeping her home clean and tidy; she does not engage in these tasks at all when at home with her family and is fully supported by her parents.  Jenny will flatten out her duvet in the evening.  At school she takes part in different activities which staff have supported her to learn over a long period of time, including cleaning up after cooking which she does not do at home (cooking or cleaning up).  It has taken a long time for school to teach Jenny how to carry out these different activities.  Jenny knows you need to pay for things but she doesn’t understand monetary value or how much needs for things or if change is required.  She would keep on handing money over unless she was told to stop.

What’s not working well or needs to change:  No concerns identified

Has this outcome been met:  Completely

 Personal Budget and Financial Information

Towards the end of the care plan there’s likely to be a section on the finances.  There might be an indicative budget – this is not the actual budget but is a starting point only.  It may include a breakdown of who receives how much of the budget and details of the LA’s contribution and the young person’s contribution.

For example, if a young person is at residential school part – the largest part – of the budget is going to be paid to the school with a smaller amount allocated for when the young person is at home.  This might be a direct payment or could, itself, be an amount paid directly to an organisation providing support or activities for the young person.

Planning for risks

There may be a section about potential risks, how likely they are to happen, how serious it would be, what is done to manage the risk and therefore the overall risk once a plan is in place.  It might look like this:

What are the things that could go wrong and that I and others need to plan for?

Risk of living in an unsafe or unhygienic home environment

How likely:  Likely

How serious would this be:  Slightly risky

Management:  Jenny will be supported by her parents, PA and staff at college to ensure she has a clean and tidy home environment

Overall risk:  Low

How can the Direct Payment (personal budget) be used?

There might be a section on how the Direct Payment is going to be used.  However, it is a starting point and not the only way(s) the DP can be used.  It might look like this:

Respite care and PA support to Jenny to enable her to:

• Maintain family and personal relationships
• Make use of services in the community
• Enable mum to participate in social and recreational activities
• Enable mum to continue to work and to offer flexibility to her employer

A direct payment should be able to be used flexibly in any (reasonable) way to meet the young person’s needs.

If you are unsure you should pass it by the social worker.