April 2024: This chapter, which explains the role of Calderdale Council Brokerage Service and how they work with social workers and community providers to find the best care for adults using the service, is new.
CONTENTS
1. What is Brokerage?
Brokerage supports adults to find and manage the care and support services they require. It is a person-centred approach which finds and matches providers of care and support services with the adult and the outcomes that they have identified as important to them, including their cultural needs (see Providing Culturally Appropriate Care chapter). It enables the adult and their carer / representative to have more choice, independence, control and flexibility.
Calderdale Council’s Brokerage Service works with social workers and community providers to find the best care for adults using the service, advising how support will be provided and by which services. Brokers (who are members of staff in the Brokerage Service) use their experience and knowledge of local services to help adults find the best support available to meet their needs and help them achieve maximum independence. It aims to make the process of managing budgets and services easier for the adult and / or their family.
2. Who can use Brokerage Services?
Adults who receive local authority funding and those who have to pay for their own care and support can use the Brokerage Service.
Adults who have been assessed by the local authority as having eligible care and support needs can receive a managed support service via the Brokerage Team. (see Assessment and Eligibility chapter).
Adults who are not eligible for local authority funding and have to pay for their care and support services themselves (known as self-funders) can also use the brokerage service (see Self-funders chapter).
The Brokerage Service can provide one-off or ongoing support for those who need it. Support is offered in person, on the telephone or online.
3. What the Brokerage Service does
3.1 Aims of the Brokerage Service
The Brokerage Service aims to:
- respond to each new referral within 24 working hours of receiving it;
- prioritise emergency and urgent requests, providing responses within agreed timescales to meet the adult’s needs;
- send electronic enquiries to home care agencies and collate responses, usually within 72 working hours
- support adults to make the most of their financial resources, by finding and providing information about care and support available in their local area at the best or no cost, whilst providing the best value and quality;
- provide an effective and fair system that gives providers equal opportunities, as appropriate, to compete for contracts or involvement;
- provide data to service providers and commissioners to inform and support investment and future planning in services, including identifying gaps in the market and unmet need.
3.2 Role of the broker
The role of the broker is to:
- Find a Homecare/Outreach package of care within 24 working hours.
- Support the adult to receive a service within 72 working hours of receiving a referral.
- Deal with invoicing queries for managed services.
- Be the first point of call for any provider queries.
- Input details of a managed service onto the client information system.
- Send out support plans.
- Set up the service for the adult receiving services.
- Resolve any problems that may arise with managing local authority funding or service providers.
3.3 Different types of services available
The Brokerage Service can support adults enquiring about different types of care and support services. These include:
- Homecare
- Outreach
These services may be within the community and voluntary sector, private sector or public sector agencies. There will be different funding requirements for these services, depending on the service and the financial status of the adult.
4. Referrals
Adults who are already working with adult social care can be referred by their allocated worker.
Adult social care can send a referral for Homecare or Outreach to the Brokerage Team, who will look for a managed service on behalf of the adult requiring services.
4.1 Making a referral
Staff making a new referral to the Brokerage Service must make sure, that wherever possible, they give the Brokerage Service enough notice for new support to be sourced, chosen and set up in a planned way, with enough time for providers to make contact with the adult before the service needs to start. These steps must be completed with the adult at the centre of the process and they must be consulted throughout (see Personalisation chapter). The adult social care team will ensure the adult and their carer / representative have time to consider the information being given to them and understand the choices that are available.
Referral information should include whether the adult has mental capacity and if not, the referrer should provide contact details for the person who is supporting them in making best interests decisions (see Mental Capacity and Best Interests chapter).
Staff making referrals can ring the Brokerage Service in the first instance, but all telephone calls must be followed up by completed paperwork sent electronically within 1 working day.
4.2 Closing cases
There may be a number of reasons why an adult stops working with the Brokerage Service. These include:
- their situation has improved, and they no longer need services;
- they feel confident they can manage their involvement with services / staff without further support from the local authority;
- they move into long term / permanent care;
- the adult dies.
When the Brokerage Service is no longer working with an adult, a record should be made on their case records, including the reason why and the case should be closed, after discussion and agreement with the line manager.
