Equality Impact Assessment - Adult Social Care Eligibility Criteria

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• Equality Impact Assessment - Adult Social Care Eligibility Criteria

Is this a new function or a review of an existing function?

Existing, but changed in August 2007. The eligibility criteria is to enable social workers to carry out an assessment on new and existing service users to see if they are eligible for support . There are four bands substantial, critical, moderate and low. The service will be offered to those in the first two categories and anyone in the latter two groups will be supported through the Independence and Wellbeing Strategy which is preventative strategy to ensure individuals are able to live in the community independently and safely.

There is public information available on the Council website at:

that sets out how the system works and information is available in alternative formats on request.

Staff  are given appropriate guidance and training taking into account potential services users who may not have had any contact with social services and need to provide personal and sensitive information to professional within a short period to be assessed. This is an issue that the service is aware and deals with in a practical way.

What are the aims/purpose of the function?

There is guidance from the Department of Health, the Fair Access to Care guidance , which governs the way Local Authorities offer services, see

This is statutory section 7 guidance, which must be followed by all council’s with Social Services responsibilities.

The function of Eligibility Criteria and the implementation of the criteria are to determine, who and which needs will be met by Adult Social Care.

The criteria are applied at assessment to all potential service users.

The eligibility criteria provides a means to ensure there is fair access to services and the assessment process enables staff to adopt a consistent approach.

Is the function designed to meet specific needs such as the needs of minority ethnic groups, older people, disabled people etc?

The function is designed to meet the social care of the needs of residents in Kingston. The services are for adults over the age of 18. The service is invariably used by older people and people with disabilities. There is a transition programme for children when they become adults and satisfy the eligibility criteria.

What information has been gathered on this function? (Indicate the type of information gathered e.g. statistics, consultation, other monitoring information)? Attach a summary or refer to where the evidence can be found.

There is extensive evidence from Social Care staff. All assessments are recorded on the Social Care information system (currently SWIFT). This would include assessments, which led to the provision of a service and those that did not. The ratio of assessments, which lead to a service and which do not is part of a statutory return, which has to be made the Department or Health.

The information system records assessment details, but also: age, gender, ethnicity (if people agree) and disability. It does not yet record religion or belief and sexual orientation.

Religion or beliefs are indirectly captured to ensure that individuals are provided with appropriate service taking into account the specific religious requirements eg food.

Does your analysis of the information show different outcomes for different groups (higher or lower uptake/failure to access/receive a poorer or inferior service)? If yes, indicate which groups and which aspects of the policy or function contribute to inequality?

The data has several levels. We report on indicators and analyse data, which shows the proportion of assessment and service delivery for all groups. These shows the proportions are approximately those of the general population. This would indicate that the service is universal. Our data currently is not able to show whether an individual delayed taking up the service due to lack of information or for any other reasons.

Gender is more difficult, as woman seem more likely to take up some lower level services for older people, such as Day Services, although this is not a function of the criteria denying men, they seem not to want to access the services on offer. There are ongoing initiatives in Older Peoples day services to change this balance eg Men only groups.

I relation to disability, it is complex as most community care service users will be offered a service because of their disability.

The application of Eligibility Criteria would not rule out anyone on these grounds, but on the grounds that they didn’t have an allowable need, when matched against the criteria.

The criteria changed in August 2007, from meeting the needs of all users, to only meeting those of people with critical and substantial needs, see:

Since the change community care has tracked all of those who have not been offered services and found that they have been successfully signposted to other services. The change is not being applied retrospectively to existing users of services.

The area of Community Care is a large one and discovering whether the Eligibility Criteria or indeed any other policy or procedure has a discriminatory impact is a part of the ongoing work of the division. The division has an Equalities group and has had two, 2007 and 2008 annual managers meetings to discuss Equalities in service delivery. All teams are required to develop Equalities targets as part of their Team Plan, these seek to identify if people are excluded or not taking up the services being offered.

Are these differences justified (e.g. are there legislative or other constraints)? If they are, explain in what way.

There is inevitably different responses to people, but the purpose of the eligibility criteria as framed, both by the Department of Health and implemented by Royal Borough of Kingston, is that these differences are based on needs, not on other factors e.g. race, faith , gender etc.

RBK monitors the application of Eligibility Criteria and more generally the delivery of services by collecting data on each person. This includes age, gender and ethnicity. This data can be interrogated at a number of levels, so can inform detailed team planning and target setting.

The existing recording does not capture: Religion or Belief (although it does on some cases) and Sexual Orientation.

The data system is being re-commissioned from 2009/10 and part of the specification will be to include these categories.

What action needs to be taken as a result of this Equality Impact Assessment to address any detrimental impacts or meet previously unidentified need? Include here any reasonable adjustments for access by disabled people. Include dates by which action will be taken. Attach an action plan if necessary.

So far there are no identified detrimental impacts of the changes; however, the application of the Eligibility Criteria will be monitored to see if any patterns of service take up or non-take up emerge. Analysis of the data would indicate to staff of any underlying reasons for the lack of take up in service as well as any anomalies within the assessment process. This will enable the service to put in place effective measures to eradicate any differential or negative impact to any of the equality target groups.

The data on assessment will take into account the ethnicity and gender to enable better analysis of data.

Work towards encouraging service users to provide better data on all six equality target areas.

There needs to be a coordinated approach to ensure that the individuals who are not entitle to the services due to the assessment process and are falling into the lower eligibility strands are being supported through the Independence and Wellbeing Strategy.

When will you evaluate the impact of action taken? Give review dates.

Annually each May

Assessment completed by:

Name: Simon Pearce

Service: Community Care

Date:13th May 2008