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Information and advice workbook
1.
How to use this workbook
This work book forms part of the suite of learning materials that have been
developed to support the implementation of part one of the Care Act 2014. These
materials summarise and explain the ‘Care and Support Statutory Guidance’
(October 2014) [“the guidance”] and are designed to help those involved in care and
support services to understand and implement the Act.
The suite of learning materials contains workbooks, PowerPoint presentations and
other material for each of the following topic areas:
1. Introduction and overview
2. Information and advice
3. First contact and identifying needs, including assessment and eligibility, and
independent advocacy
4. Charging and financial assessment, including deferred payment agreements
5. Person centred care and support planning, including personal budgets, direct
payments and review
6. Transition to adulthood
7. Integration, cooperation and partnerships
This workbook is about the information and advice requirements of the Act and its
statutory guidance. It has been written for learning facilitators and includes
exercises, suggested group discussions, points of reflection and case studies that
facilitators can use either in their entirety or to pick and choose from as they see fit
when designing a learning programme based on the PowerPoint presentation.
The workbook can also be used by individuals who wish to learn more about this
topic area. You can watch the presentation, read the notes below, and undertake the
exercises at a pace and time to suit you.
As well as this workbook and PowerPoint presentation, there are also handouts and
a shorter overview presentation on this topic area. Handouts provide easy to print
resources that summarise key factual information from the guidance.
The implementation of the Act requires whole systems change and underpinning this
is a need for cultural change. These learning materials alone will not affect such
change, but they are one tool that can be used to support people along the journey.
In many instances, implementing the Act successfully will require those involved in
the care and support system to change the way they work i.e. behaviour change.
Research suggests that the way people behave is influenced by their knowledge,
skills and attitudes:
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Knowledge
Skills
Behaviour
Attitudes
The PowerPoint presentation and handouts are designed to increase knowledge
about the Act or guidance. The questions and exercises in the workbook are
designed to spark conversations that encourage people to reflect on their own
attitudes and the attitudes of others. They aim to give learners the opportunity to
discuss the complexities of implementing the changes in practice, and/or provide a
safe way of challenging attitudes that go against good practice. The case studies are
designed to provide an opportunity for people to analyse and practice their skills.
Key learning point
These are used in the workbook as a way of highlighting changes that are likely to
have a significant impact on practice i.e. the major changes that the Act brings in.
The facilitators’ hints and tips in the workbook signpost facilitators to existing good
practice resources on this topic area and/or highlight key changes that are likely to
have the most significant impact on practice. The aim is to help facilitators to design
interactive learning programmes that are appropriate for their audience.
Facilitator’s hints and tips
To successfully facilitate this module we suggest that you need to:

have read the relevant sections of the Act, regulations and guidance

have a good understanding of best practice in this topic area

remember that there are various modules available and you need to choose
the most suitable ones for your learning programme

also remember that you can pick and mix questions, exercises and case
studies from this workbook or from other topic areas

design your training session in a way that accounts for the learning pyramid
so as to maximize the experience and learning outcomes for your participants.
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Average retention rates
Lecture
5%
Reading 10%
Passive teaching
methods
Audio visual 20%
Demonstration 30%
Discussion 50%
Participatory
teaching methods
Practice by doing 75%
Teach others 90%
Source: Adapted from National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine
2.
Who is it for?
This workbook is about information and advice. It explores section 4 of the Care Act
and chapter 3 of the statutory guidance. It is intended to be used to develop learning
programmes for:
 people employed in ‘one stop shops’ or other contact points, or who have a
role as part of their work, in giving information and advice
 specialist information and advice workers
 managers in local authorities with a responsibility for information and advice
services, and managers responsible for providing those services.
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3.
Contents
This workbook starts with an overview, which summaries the topic area, and
identifies relevant key words. It then contains the following sections that match the
slides in the PowerPoint presentation:








Introduction
What the Act says: a duty on local authorities
What information and advice needs to be provided?
Who needs information and advice and when do they need it?
Proportionality and accessibility
How effective is information and advice?
A strategic approach
Summary
Appendices: strategic implications; links to key resources; handouts
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4.
Overview
Information and advice is fundamental to enabling people, carers and families to take
control of, and make well-informed choices about, their care and support and how
they fund it. Not only does information and advice help to promote people’s wellbeing
by increasing their ability to exercise choice and control, it is also a vital component
of preventing or delaying people’s need for care and support.
Local authorities must establish and maintain a service for providing people in its
area with information and advice relating to care and support for adults and support
for carers. The duty means the local authority is likely to need to go beyond the
direct provision of information and advice by the local authority, though this is clearly
important, to working to ensure the coherence, sufficiency, availability and
accessibility of information and advice relating to care and support across the local
authority area. Importantly, the duty relates to the whole population of the local
authority area, not just those with care and support needs or in some other way
already known to the system.
The local authority must ensure that information and advice services cover more
than just basic information about care and support. The service should also address,
prevention of care and support needs, financial information and advice, health,
housing, employment, what to do in cases of abuse or neglect of an adult and other
areas where required. In fulfilling this duty, local authorities should consider the
people they are communicating with on a case by case basis, and seek to actively
encourage them towards the types of information and/or advice that may be
particularly relevant to them.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that all adults in their area with a need
for information and advice about care and support, including carers, are able to
access it. This is a very broad group, extending much further than people who have
an immediate need for care or support. Local authorities, working with partners, must
use the wider opportunities to provide targeted, accessible information and advice at
key ‘trigger’ points in people’s contact with care and support, health and other local
services such as on take-up of power of attorney or contact with the criminal justice
system.
The guidance suggests that local authorities develop and implement a plan with
regard to their information and advice services and it offers a framework for this
based on 4 key elements:
 engagement and coproduction with stakeholders

mapping the range of information, advice and advocacy services available

coordination with other statutory bodies with an interest in care and support

reviewing the effectiveness of the service.
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5.
Key words
The suite of learning materials contains a glossary of key words used in the
statutory guidance. The following key words, definitions of which can be found in the
glossary, are relevant to this topic area: abuse, advice, advocacy, appropriate
individual, assessment, care and support plan, care provider, carer, duty, eligible
needs, financial information, independent advocate, information, power of attorney,
preventative, proportionate, rights, safeguarding, significant difficulty, self-funder,
signposting, transition, wellbeing.
6.
Introduction
Slide 1
Notes
1. This work book forms part of the suite of learning materials that have been
developed to support the implementation of part one of the Care Act 2014. These
materials summarise and explain the statutory guidance and are designed to help
those involved in care and support services to understand and implement the Act.
2. This presentation is about information and advice. It is intended for:
 people employed in ‘one stop shops’ or other contact points, or who have a
role as part of their work in giving information and advice
 specialist information and advice workers
managers in local authorities with a responsibility for information and advice
services, and managers responsible for providing those services.
3. The aim of the presentation is to help you reflect on the implications of the Act for
your role, so that you will know what you must do differently and what you may
need to do differently.
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Slide 2
Slide 3
Notes
1. Information and advice is fundamental to enabling people to take control of and
make well-informed choices about their care and support and how they fund it.
2. Not only does information and advice help to promote people’s wellbeing by
increasing their ability to exercise choice and control, it is also a vital component
of preventing or delaying people’s need for care and support. There have been
numerous pieces of research and previous policy relating to the importance of the
information and advice agenda. For example:
“As has been demonstrated time and time again, advice and information is critical
to the workings - or failings - of our social care system. Without access to timely
advice and information, people:
 don’t understand what they are entitled to from the state
 can’t make the best decisions about funding care
 are unable to choose the best quality care for the situation in which they find
themselves.”1
1
Easterbrook, L. (2011) Getting over the threshold for advice: Issues arising from the Care Quality
Commission’s unpublished review of English social services’ response to people’s ‘first contact’ for
information, advice, help or support’. Information Age
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4. The availability and provision of information and advice, whether more general
information about the way the system operates in the local authority area or more
personalised information on a person’s specific needs, are essential building
blocks to all of the reforms and many of the specific duties the Care Act
introduces. There is a clear link between good information and advice and the
underpinning wellbeing principle of the Act. It is also a vital component of
preventing or delaying people’s need for care and support.
Question

What key words or phrases (in the slide) stand out to you? Why?
Slide 4
Notes
1. It can be difficult to unpick information and advice services and to separate those
from advocacy services, since for many users of care and support these three
types of service provision overlap and are inter-related. In order to access the
right services and/or information, people may require support from each of these
types of services, and they do not always follow a linear progression (such as the
person moving from a position of requiring information to advice and then
advocacy).
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2. It may be helpful therefore to think of it as a spectrum of information and advice
and advocacy ‘activity’ with overlaps between the groupings. Four types of
activity are identified in the spectrum on this slide:
 self-help information
 assisted information
 advice
 specialist advice and advocacy.
There are examples of common delivery mechanisms for these activities (such as
telephone helplines or charities/support groups such as Age UK) and their likely
associated level of interaction between the person needing information and
advice and those providing it. In this presentation we will focus on information
and advice, note there is a learning module on independent advocacy.
Questions
 Are there any examples of local information, advice or advocacy delivery
mechanisms that are not represented on this spectrum?
 Thinking about the four types of activity on the spectrum, what is the balance
of what is provided locally?
 Are there are activities that you think are currently under or over represented?
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Slide 5
Notes
1. An interim report for Think Local, Act Personal2 in 2013 identified 8 major
problems with the information and advice available to those with social care
needs.
1. A survey conducted in 2008 found that over 51% of people found the system
of social care confusing while another survey in 2010 found that just 5% of
people considered that it was easy to navigate. People may require access to
multiple advice services/sources simultaneously and find it difficult to
distinguish which advice and information service may best meet their needs.
2. The social care system is often first accessed during a crisis i.e. in
circumstances in which decision-making is fraught with difficulty. This in turn
is made worse because most people do not anticipate needing care and do
not learn in advance how the care and support system works.
3. When navigating a complex system under pressure, people need especially
high quality information and advice. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that
it is often not available.
4. Local authorities should be a natural and logical starting point for individuals
who have care needs. But initial contact can be poor and access to
assessment patchy, particularly for those who present as obvious ‘selffunders’. Most advice services have been fragmented across a range of
voluntary and statutory agencies and have relied on short-term funding,
leading to patchy provision.
5. The more complex the system, the greater the need for independent support
to help people navigate it with advice or advocacy. In some areas, this
support may be limited or non-existent.
2
Think Local Act Personal (2013) Advice and information needs in adult social care: Interim report for
the Think Local, Act Personal partnership.
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6. Social care has very significant overlap with the benefits system, housing and
health. Yet information and advice is often not joined-up.
7. For self-funders and those in receipt of a direct payment, there is limited
information about what care services exist and – crucially – how good they
are.
8. Lack of financial advice, particularly for those entering care homes, is a
significant problem for all involved in care – the individuals, the homes and the
local authorities.
2. The information and advice reforms of the Act are designed to try to address
these perceived problems.
Questions
 What do you feel about these major problems? Are they representative of
issues in your local area, now or in the past?
 What are you most concerned or anxious about?
 What do you feel most reassured by?
7.
What the Act says: a duty on local authorities
Slide 6
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Notes
1. Section 4 (1) of the Act says that local authorities (not just social services
departments) must “establish and maintain a service for providing people in its
area with information and advice relating to care and support for adults and
support for carers.” Importantly, the duty relates to the whole population of the
local authority area, not just those with care and support needs or in some other
way known to the system.
2. The guidance states that “The breadth of the circumstances under which
information and advice must be provided, and the overall duty to promote
individual wellbeing, means that local authorities must ensure that the subject
matters covered by their information and advice available to people in their areas
go much further than a narrow definition of care and support” (3.23).
3. The local authority must ensure that this information and advice service covers
more than just basic information about care and support and takes a wide
definition covering care and support related aspects of health (including
Continuing Health Care arrangements), housing, education, benefits,
employment e.g. available housing and housing-related support options for those
with care and support needs, employment support for people with impairments,
and applying for disability related benefits.
Questions
 What key words or phrases (in the slide) stand out to you? Why?
 What do you understand by the term ‘a wide definition’ of information and
advice?
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Slide 7
Notes
1. Whilst local authorities must establish and maintain a service, they do not have to
provide all elements of this service. They are expected to understand, co-ordinate
and make effective use of other high quality statutory, voluntary and/or private
sector information and advice resources available to people within their areas.
This may also include provision of a service with one or more local authorities,
health services, children’s services, or reuse of information from other local or
national sources. What is important will be the availability, accessibility and ease
of use for the local population.
2. Key questions to ask when reviewing the local information and advice service
are:
 What is our population’s information and advice needs? How can we find this
out?
 Can we identify what is available locally and who provides what?
 How and where should it best be provided in the future?
3. There are some circumstances where it is particularly important for information
and advice to be impartially provided. The guidance states that “In particular,
people should be signposted to appropriate independent information and advice
when they are entering into a legal agreement with a local authority or other third
party, such as a deferred payment agreement or committing to a top-up, or they
wish to question, challenge or appeal a decision of the local authority or other
statutory body.” (3.63)
Key learning point
Local authorities must ensure there is a local information and advice service, but
are not expected to provide all elements of the service.
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Question
 When might it be in a person’s best interests that they be signposted, directed
or referred to independent sources of information and advice?
4. Signposting people to appropriate independent information and advice might be
considered when they are entering into a legal agreement with a local authority or
other third party, such as a deferred payment agreement or committing to a topup, or they wish to question, challenge or appeal a decision of the local authority
or other statutory body.
Questions
 Where appropriate, you can signpost or refer people to national sources of
information and advice e.g. NHS Choices website, Care Quality
Commissioning website, Carers Direct national telephone helpline or national
charities or advice services supporting people with disabilities or specific
conditions?
 What national or regional sources of information and advice are you aware of /
do you use already?
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8.
What information and advice needs to be provided?
Slide 8
Notes
1. Information and advice should help people to understand how care and support
services work locally, the care and funding options available, and how people can
access care and support services. The Act states 4 (2) that information and
advice must be provided on these five areas in particular.
 How the system works. An outline of what the ‘process’ may entail and the
judgements that may need to be made, including specific information on what
the assessment, eligibility and review process is, how to complain or make a
formal appeal to the authority, what they involve and when independent
advocacy should be provided.
 How people can access support i.e. where/who and how to make contact,
including information on how and where to request an assessment of needs, a
review or to complain or appeal against a decision.
 The types and range of care and support services available to local people
e.g. specialised dementia care, befriending services, residential care etc.
Which local providers offer what types of services, including prevention and
reablement services and wider services that support wellbeing. Where
possible this should include the likely costs to the person of the care and
support services. This should also include information on different types of
service or support that allow people personal control over their care and
support for example, details of ISFs and direct payments.
 Care and support related financial information and advice about the extent of
their personal responsibilities to pay for care and support, their rights to
statutory financial and other support, locally and nationally, so that they
understand what they are entitled to. Local authorities must also identify
those who may benefit from independent financial advice or information as
early as possible, and help them to access it. More on this on next slide.
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
How people can raise concerns about the safety or wellbeing of someone who
has care and support needs and what will happen when such concerns are
raised (and also consider how to do the same for a carer with support needs).
Key learning point
Local authorities must ensure that information and advice is provided about these
five areas.
Facilitator’s hints and tips
It is important to be clear that the duty to provide these 5 types of information is for
the local authority, which does not necessarily mean that any one individual or
organisation will need to provide all of this information to people needing care and
support. It may also be the case that information and advice is provided by the local
authority’s partners or other agencies. It will be helpful to explore with learners what
their role is in providing advice, when they need to provide it (e.g. at the point of first
contact or when someone is considering a deferred payment agreement), and how
they will ensure that they keep up to date. See the assessment and eligibility,
charging and financial assessment, and care and support planning modules for
more details about information and advice required during these processes in
particular.
Below are a number of questions and exercises designed to get people thinking
about:
 their own practice and what they might need to change
 the type of information and advice people might want and need and the
degree that this is currently available for people in the local area
 the provision of information about services outside the local area and how this
is may need to be improved.
It may not be necessary to use all of these questions / exercises. You will need to
decide which are most relevant and useful in prompting the appropriate discussions
to match the learning needs of your learning audience.
Questions
 Could you explain how the care and support system works and how someone
could access it?
 Do you know how to access information and advice about the types and range
of care and support services available to local people?
 Do you know how people can raise concerns about safety or wellbeing?
 If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions, or a person needs
more information and advice than you can give, do you know where to guide
them to?
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
How will you keep up to date with information and advice?

Are there any issues that this part of the guidance raises for you or your
organisation?
Exercise
Imagine that you were buying a new car (or house or …). What information and
advice would you want before you made a decision on what to buy? Where would
you look for that information? How good would you like that information and advice
to be?
Now repeat the same activity as if you were searching for a home care provider in
your area. Think carefully about what information and advice you would want if you
were looking for options for yourself or for a relative?
How do you think the information available about care and support in your local
area compares with the information available about the car (or house or …..)?
2. Where it is reasonable, information and advice should also cover care and
support services that, whilst physically provided outside the authority's area, are
usually available to its local population.
Questions
 Are there any care and support services that people who live in your local
area regularly use that are e.g. over the boundary in another local authority
area?
 Can you direct people to where they can find out more about these services?
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Slide 9
Notes
1. Financial information and advice is fundamental to enabling people to make wellinformed choices about how they pay for their care. People with good and
impartial financial information and advice are more likely to have a better
understanding of how their money can be used more flexibly to fund a wider
range of care options.
2. The guidance states (see Handout: financial information and advice) that
financial information and advice given to individuals should include the following
aspects:
 Information on the charging framework to help people understand what they
may have to pay, when and why.
 Different ways to pay for care including through income and assets (e.g.
pension or housing wealth), a deferred payment agreement, a financial
product or a combination of these things. The cap on care costs, when
preparing for its introduction (April 2016), particularly early assessments.
 Money management including, if appropriate, welfare benefits, help with basic
budgeting and possibly on debt management. The local authority may be able
to provide some of this information itself, for example of welfare benefits, but
where it cannot, it should help people access it.
3. You should consider a person’s need for financial information and advice when
they make first contact with the local authority as well as throughout the
assessment, care and support planning and review processes. You should check
before providing this information and advice whether the person has Court of
Protection or Lasting Power of Attorney acting on their behalf.
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4. As well as the local authority’s responsibilities to provide or signpost individuals
with financial information and advice, they also have broader responsibilities.
Provision of information to people accessing the care and support system should
be complemented by broader awareness raising about how care and support is
funded and work with partners to communicate messages about the benefits of
financial information and advice in general.
5. The service that local authorities are required to establish and maintain must
include financial information and advice on matters relevant to care and support.
A local authority should provide some of this information directly to people in its
community. However, where it would not be appropriate for a local authority to
provide it directly the local authority must ensure that people are helped to
understand how to access independent financial advice. The local authority must
identify people who may benefit from independent financial advice or information
as early as possible. This should include generic advice as well as services
providing regulated financial advice.
Key learning point
Local authorities must identify people who may benefit from independent financial
advice and help them access it.
Questions
 Who in particular may benefit from independent financial advice?
 How might you help them access it?
6. The following groups of people in particular are likely to need independent
financial advice: self-funders, people affected by the care cap (when it is
introduced in 2016), carers of frail older people, people accessing preventative
services, people considering a deferred payment agreement or paying a top up.
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7. ‘Facilitating access’ may include:
 making people aware of specific sources of information and advice that are
available and giving directions about how to use them
 describing the general benefits of independent information and advice, e.g. in
a leaflet or website, and for information and advice workers or those in contact
with the public to be able to explain the benefits to an individual
 being clear that some independent financial advice services may charge for
the information and advice they provide
 making a direct referral to an independent financial adviser is NOT a
requirement, but local authorities should actively help and direct a person to a
choice of advisers regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with the
appropriate qualifications and accreditation.
Case study
Mr O’Hanlon lives with his daughter and son-in-law and teenage grand-children, in a
property that he owns. He is aged 71 and his wife died some years ago. He has
Alzheimer’s disease and although he is quite mobile, he is doubly incontinent and
needs help with getting up and dressed and getting ready for bed.
The family are aware that they could get some help from the local authority but think
that they would be better off making their own arrangements because they do not
want to be financially assessed.
The family are anticipating that at some point Mr O’Hanlon will need to go into a
nursing home but would like him to stay at home for as long as possible, so at their
GP’s suggestion they contact their local authority for advice. They look on the
website and click through the following sequence: Information and Advice followed
by a section entitled Direct Payments, Legal and Money Advice. On this website
page they look at various options including: a) general information and advice, b)
managing someone else’s affairs, c) financial assessments and d) direct payments
for social care, before deciding on e) independent financial advice, which takes them
to the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) site. The site says “Our aim is to
ensure that consumers are better informed about the financial issues of later life and
can find a fully accredited adviser quickly and easily.”
The family also clicked through Information and Advice to Care Homes and Housing
Options, and saw that there were options for a) staying at home as well as b)
residential and nursing homes. They decide to find out more about the financial
issues before exploring these other options further. They have chosen an adviser
who gives advice free for the first hour.
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Question
 One of the options in “a) general information and advice” is to contact the local
authority’s Information and Access Team. If they had done so, what
information and advice do you think that they should be given?
Suggested Answer
The family’s expressed request for financial information and advice could be met in
the same way, if the information and advice service were following the Care Act
guidance. The information and advice worker should consider asking them if they
had read that there are new arrangements for deferred payment agreements and
that things are changing in April 2016, and signpost them to that information if
necessary. The person they spoke to would probably have also aimed to advise
them that there are a range of services available from various different organisations
aimed at keeping people at home for as long as possible, and that some of these do
not involve the local authority doing a financial assessment.
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9.
Who needs information and advice and when do they need it?
Slide 10
Notes
1. The guidance states that local authorities are responsible for ensuring that all
adults in their area with a need for information and advice about care and support
are able to access it. This is a very broad group, extending much further than
people who have an immediate need for care or support, and includes all the
people on this slide. In addition, care and support staff who have contact with and
provide information and advice as part of their jobs.
2. Note that the guidance contains specific requirements for information and advice
for carers. It states that “In providing information and advice, local authorities
must recognise and respond to the specific requirements that carers have for
both general and personal information and advice… This may include information
and advice on:
 breaks from caring
 the health and wellbeing of carers themselves
 caring and advice on wider family relationships
 carers’ financial and legal issues
 caring and employment
 caring and employment
 a carer’s need for advocacy” (3.16).
3. However, traditional service-led approaches to meeting needs in social care has
meant that carers have not always received the right help for the right issues in
the right way, and at the right time. What carers would like to see in practice is
clear, consistent, coordinated information that is easy to access, and information
giving to be a two-way process, where there voice is heard3. Local authorities
may need to specifically review the information and advice that is accessed by
carers.
3
Think Local, Act Personal (2013) Making it Real for Carers. TLAP, Carers Trust, ADASS.
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Question
 What are the implications for you or your organisation of the need to provide
information and advice to this broad group of people?
Slide 11
Notes
1. There have been growing numbers of (primarily older) people who make their
own arrangements for care and support services without the direct involvement of
their local council. An implication of the care cap, which is being introduced in
2016/17, is that there are likely to be more self funders approaching the local
authority for information and advice and assessment in the future. See the
introduction and overview workbook for more information about the care cap.
2. The Act stresses the importance of supporting the whole population to stay
healthy and active, and also to be assisted in making the right choices regarding
ways of meeting their care and support needs. However, few local authorities
know much about those who fund their own care and support and in the past selffunders have tended to find difficulties in accessing statutory information and
advice.
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3. Studies in relation to information and advice for self-funders have found evidence
of problems with information giving by local authorities. Many people do not think
about approaching councils for advice on accessing care because of a lack of
knowledge and because of the perceived stigma of doing so, while those that
have approached their council find little information was offered and the
signposting to other sources of support was usually a negative experience4:
 a shortage of information for those who were purchasing their own care
 much ‘signposting’ to other services but little follow up as to whether the
advice was followed or whether the signpost pointed people in the right
direction
 partial information being given rather than one person taking responsibility for
ensuring that the person had all the information they needed
 none of the people who were self-funding had received independent financial
advice on paying for care
 informal information, word of mouth, and reputation were the most significant
factors influencing people’s decision making and destinations.
Questions
 How well do you think self-funders’ needs for information and advice are
served in your local area?
 Does this raise any issues for you?
4
Henwood and Hudson (2011) People who pay for care: An analysis of self-funders in the social care
market.
Page 25
Slide 12
Notes
1. As well as who needs information and advice the other key factor is when people
might need it. There are a number of direct opportunities to provide – or signpost
– information and advice when people come into contact with local authorities.
For instance:
 as part of a needs or carer’s assessment, including joint Continuing Health
Care assessments
 during a period of reablement
 around and following financial assessment
 during or following an adult safeguarding enquiry
 during the care and support planning process or review
 when a person may be considering a move to another local authority area
 at points in transition, e.g. when young people needing care become adults.
2. However, the guidance requires local authorities to ensure that information and
advice is given at an early stage so that people can make the best informed
decision for their particular circumstance. So there is an element of actively
targeting the audience for information and advice to ensure you get the
information to people before (or when) they need it, even if they didn’t know they
needed it.
3.
4. The guidance states that “Local authorities, working with partners, must use the
wider opportunities to provide targeted information and advice at key points in
people’s contact with care and support, health and other local services. These
include, but are not limited to, known ‘trigger points’ during a person’s life” (3.25).
Key learning point
Local authorities must target information and advice at key points of contact with the
authority and ‘trigger points’ in people’s lives.
Page 26
Questions
 What are the key trigger points in a person’s life when information and advice
might most be needed?
 What can the local authority do to actively target the right people at the right
time?
The guidance gives the following examples:
 contact with other local authority services
 bereavement
 hospital entry and/or discharge
 diagnosis of health conditions – such as dementia or stroke for example
 consideration or review of Continuing Healthcare arrangements
 take-up of power of attorney
 applications to Court of Protection
 application for /review of disability benefits such as Attendance or Carers
Allowance
 access to work interviews
 contact with local support groups/charities/User Led Organisations
 contact with/use of private care and support services, including residential
care
 change or loss of housing
 contact with the criminal justice system
 release from prison
 “Guidance Guarantee” in the Pensions Act 2014
 retirement.
Page 27
Case study
Florence Brown is 75 years old and lives alone in a house that she used to share
with her husband (who died six months ago) and her two daughters.
She suffers from COPD5, is frail and has restricted mobility. She has been admitted
to hospital several times for short-periods because of respiratory infections. She
used to smoke heavily but gave up when she was first diagnosed five years ago.
She receives practical and emotional support from one of her daughters Mary who
lives nearby. Mary is divorced with no children. Florence also has supportive
neighbours. The other daughter Jane is willing to do what she can, but lives 100
miles away with her husband and three young children and works full-time.
Mary thinks that her mother will need more care and support than she can provide if
she is to continue to live at home, which she very much wants to do. Mary works
part-time as a teaching assistant, but is spending most of her spare-time caring for
her mother.
Mary has decided to follow the advice of one of her mother’s neighbours, and find
out what help that she can get from the council. So she went online and completed
a contact questionnaire with her mother’s agreement, and as a result made an
appointment with the Information and Advice service of her local council.
Questions
1. In this situation, what might Florence and what might Mary need to know?
2. What are the potential barriers to them getting the information and advice they
need?
3. What might be good opportunities to give them information and advice?
Suggested answers
1. Mary is enquiring both for her mother and herself, so she might need to know
about the local care and support system and what types of help Florence might
receive as well as things like breaks from caring for herself. They may also need
financial information and advice, particularly if Florence has savings or an
occupational pension. Some of the types of information will be more familiar to
Mary than others. Many of the services such as residential care are relatively
well known, and social care staff are experienced at explaining assessment,
eligibility and charging. But there is new information to get across in the initial
contact stage, particularly the different way that eligibility works (especially
where there is a carer involved), how prevention and delaying needs is to be
5
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name for a collection of lung diseases
including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways disease. People with COPD
have difficulties breathing.
Page 28
incorporated into the process, and new rights for carers.
2. Mary may have concluded that the website looks a bit complicated; hence she
has opted to talk to someone. The social care system is complex, and however
good the website, it is unlikely to be able to give people all of the answers they
need. In Mary’s case it is likely that the website channelled her to telephoning to
request an assessment. Self-funders are often put off contacting the local
authority, and if Florence is potentially a self-funder, then either the website had
been helpful or Mary was not put off. Of course, we don’t know how much
information is being passed on to Florence. Mary may be acting as an excellent
filter, or limiting the amount of information given to her mother. We also don’t
know if either Florence of Mary has any particular issues in accessing
information (see slide 14), but there is no obvious indication that either of them
would have substantial difficulty being involved in the assessment process (see
slide 15).
3. The Care Act emphasises that it is important to address people’s information
and advice needs throughout the care and support planning processes, and also
as part of service delivery and review. For example, information and advice will
be important during the following stages for Florence and Mary:
 as part of the needs and carer’s assessment
 during a possible period of reablement
 around and following financial assessment
 during the care and support planning process and review
The timing of giving information and advice should aim to increase Florence and
Mary’s ability to exercise choice and control. Information and advice is also a
vital component of preventing or delaying people’s need for care and support
and this must be made available in relation to all care and support needs –
whether or not they meet the eligibility criteria. For Florence and Mary that could
have been via their GP(s), the hospital (as Florence has had more than one
admission), and the registrar (or undertaker) when Florence’s husband died.
Page 29
10. Proportionality and accessibility
Slide 13
Notes
1. In providing an information and advice service, local authorities must be
providing more than just leaflets and web-based materials. The focus should be
on enabling people to access what they need through a tailored range of services
that assists people to navigate all points and aspects of their contact with the
care and support system.
2. The guidance says that “information and advice [should be] proportionate to the
needs of those for whom it is provided” (3.33). In other words, the type, extent
and timing of information and advice provided should be appropriate to the needs
of the person. More complex issues may require more intensive and more
personalised information and advice, helping people to understand the choices
available to them, while general enquiries may require a less intensive approach.
3. It is also important that the right level of information and advice is provided at the
right time, recognising that a person’s need for information or advice may vary
depending on the circumstance. For example, providing a person with too much
information, more than they can take in, perhaps at a time of crisis, can be
counter-productive. People giving information and advice should be clear about
who information is for and why they might want it.
4. Although written information can be sufficient for many people, those with the
greatest needs may require information and advice delivered face to face or by
telephone, often with practical support to resolve their problems i.e. information
may need to be imparted in person and on more than one occasion.
Page 30
5. The requirement for proportionality equally applies to care and support related
financial information and advice. Different people will need different levels of
support depending on their financial capability, their care needs and the amount
they are expected to contribute. At the lower end of the spectrum, people may
just need some basic information and support to help them rebalance their
finances in light of their changing circumstances.
6. The guidance sets out a clear role for social workers in supporting staff providing
information and advice so that people with more complex needs can be identified
as soon as possible and the person receives help to access non-statutory
services and/or initial statutory sector support proportionate to their needs.
Questions
 How well do your social work resources currently support information and
advice?
 Do any changes need to be made to ensure that people get a proportionate
response to their information and advice needs?
 Is your recording of the information and advice given also proportionate?
Slide 14
Page 31
Notes
1. The guidance states that the “The local authority must ensure that there is an
accessible information and advice service that meets the needs of its population.
Information and advice must be open to everyone who would benefit from it.”
(3.17). Putting this into practice would mean for example:
 Having a range of delivery mechanisms that are accurate, up-to-date and
consistent with other sources. The materials must be updated for accuracy, so
there must be an officer accountable for accuracy e.g. when case law
changes the sector’s understanding of a section in the Care Act.
 Staff aware of accessibility issues and appropriately trained.
 Websites meet specific access standards such as the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines & the guidance in the Government Digital Services
(GDS) service manual. Research has shown that this can be a problematic
area. For example, just under half of 50 council websites reviewed for a study
by BCD Care Associates6 were “complex or difficult to navigate”, the
terminology used by the sites was inconsistent, jargon was common and half
contained inaccurate information.
 Printed materials clear and in plain English.
 Ensuring that information and advice meets the needs of people with
particular accessibility requirements. For example people with sensory
impairments, physical or learning disabilities or mental health problems, and
people who do not have English as a first language. As far as is reasonably
practicable written materials should be translated into local minority
languages.
 As required under the Equality Act 2010 reasonable adjustments should be
made to ensure that disabled people have equal access to information and
advice.
 Some people, including some people with dementia, may benefit from an
independent person to help them to access or avail themselves of necessary
information and advice. Any such need for help must be factored in to the
delivery of the service. NB duty to make arrangements for advocacy only
applies to assessment, planning and review processes.
Case study
Gundeep arranges an appointment with his local information and advice service and
he wants to know what services or funding he might be entitled to. A friend has
advised him that he should ask for an assessment. A summary of what the
information and advice worker records is as follows.
6
BCD Care Associates (2011) Research Report Number 1 ‘At the click of a mouse’.
Page 32





Gundeep is in his early 60’s and suffers from depression and has a history of
using illegal drugs
In the past he has been prescribed anti-depressant medication and has had
some support from mental health services
He was a postal worker but is no longer in employment
He plays dhol drums in several dhol-drumming groups with people who like
himself are from the Punjabi community, but recently has been finding it
difficult to carry them around because of his arthritis
He lives alone in a housing association flat
The information and advice worker concludes that Gundeep appears to have care
and support needs and explains that an assessment will determine whether his
needs are eligible needs, and that if they are then he may get services and or
funding to buy them. Gundeep responds by saying “if I’m not eligible will they just
say no and that’s it?” The information and advice worker explains that if he is not
eligible he will be given advice on what services are available in the community to
meet his needs and what can be done to prevent or delay the development of his
needs for care and support in the future.
Subsequently Gundeep does have an assessment that concludes that although he
does have some care and support needs, they do not meet the eligibility criteria. He
does have some physical and mental impairment that results in him being unable to
access work, and although he struggles to undertake his recreation of choice (dholdrumming) his disabilities are not preventing him from being able to go to gigs and
meet his musician friends. He is given a written copy of this assessment of his
needs.
Gundeep asks about the “preventing and delaying I was promised” and he also
wants to know more about what services there are in the community that can help
him. The assessor knows that what is most important to Gundeep is to be able to
continue with his dhol-drumming, but says that all she can do is point out that the
preventative services available are set out on the website and that Gundeep would
benefit from looking at the sections on music and organisations that support people
from the Punjabi community. Gundeep says that he cannot read very well and that
he hasn’t got a computer.
Questions
1. What further information do you think should be obtained at this first stage of the
assessment of needs undertaken by the information and advice worker?
2. Do you think that the assessor has done all that she can reasonably be expected
to do by signposting Gundeep to where he can find for himself information about
preventative services that he would benefit from?
Page 33
Suggested answers
1. There is sufficient information presented for the conclusion to be reached that
Gundeep appears to have care and support needs and should therefore be
further assessed, and no doubt there would be more detail recorded. But
arguably an opportunity has been missed to explore the cultural significance of
dhol-drumming with Gundeep. Is this just a type of musical instrument played by
people with his cultural background, or does it have particular cultural and/or
spiritual significance to him?
2. The statutory guidance only makes reference to a general duty of prevention and
doesn’t say how this duty might apply to individuals. However section 6
(assessment and eligibility) says: “Where the person is found to have no eligible
needs, local authorities must provide information and advice on what can be
done to meet or reduce the needs (for example what support might be available
in the community to help the adult or carer) and what can be done to prevent or
delay the development of needs in the future. Local authorities should consider
how this package of information can be tailored to the needs which the person
does have, with the aim of delaying deterioration and preventing future needs,
and reflect the availability of local support.” So it would appear that it is not
enough in general to just signpost people to what information there might be on
relevant preventative services, some steps have to be taken to provide a tailored
package of information. In this case the assessor’s response did not consider the
accessibility of the information and advice given to Gundeep.
Slide 15
Page 34
Notes
1. The Care Act requires that local authorities involve people in decisions made
about them and their care and support or where there is to be a safeguarding
enquiry or safeguarding adults review. People should be active partners in the
key care and support processes of assessment, care and support planning and
review. ‘Involvement’ requires the local authority helping people to understand
how they can be involved, how they can contribute and take part and sometimes
lead or direct the process. The ultimate aim is for people’s wishes, feelings and
needs to be at the heart of these processes.
2. Some people may have difficulty in being involved in these processes. The
decision pathway in this slide shows two ways in which a person could be
supported if you thought that they might have difficulty being involved. At point of
first contact local authorities must consider whether the person, including carers,
would experience difficulty in being involved in the assessment.
3. Firstly, it is important to establish if and how the person could be better supported
by making changes to the arrangements. For example, by providing information
in an accessible format and involving an appropriately trained and registered
interpreter if the person needs one e.g. if they are a sign language user or don’t
have enough English to be involved without an interpreter. Note that local
authorities have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable
adjustments to meet the needs of people with particular accessibility
requirements. Such adjustments should be made before the person’s ability to be
involved in the process is reviewed again.
4. However, some people still won’t be able to be involved, even if the process has
been adapted to meet their communications needs, because they have
‘substantial difficulty’ in being involved.
5. Local authorities have a duty to involve people, so if someone has substantial
difficulty being involved they must be supported to be involved as fully as
possible by either:
 ensuring that there is an ‘appropriate individual’ such as a friend or relative
who can facilitate their involvement; or
 if there is no appropriate individual to help them, by arranging for an
independent advocate to support and represent them.
6. For more details, including what ‘substantial difficulty’ means and a definition of
who an ‘appropriate individual’ might be see the independent advocacy
workbook.
Page 35
Questions
 What measures do you currently take to meet people’s communication needs
when giving or signposting information and advice?
 What aspects are currently working well and what aren’t?
Key learning point
At point of first contact local authorities must consider whether the individual would
experience difficulty in being involved in the assessment.
Page 36
11. How effective is information and advice?
Slide 16
Notes
1. The guidance states that “Information and advice should only be judged as clear
if it is understood and able to be acted upon by the individual receiving it. Local
authorities will need to take steps to evaluate and ensure that information and
advice is understood and able to be acted upon.” (3.18)
2. However, what happens to people as a result of receiving information or advice is
an area where little is known. Research has shown that this is a problematic area
and follow-up monitoring or evaluation is rarely undertaken beyond customersatisfaction surveys. The quote shown in the slide to illustrate this is from a case
study in the Barriers to Choice Review7.
3. Local authorities will need to check that information and advice is understood and
able to be acted upon by the person receiving it. This is a two-fold issue:
i.
Firstly, the care system is complex and the processes are difficult to
understand at first. The person giving information and advice, and in particular
handling any first contact phone call, must check that the person making the
request feels they have understood the information. This highlights an
important aspect of all information and advice provision: it is not necessarily
that staff, familiar with the system within which they work, need be satisfied
that something has been adequately explained; rather that they check that it
has been correctly interpreted and therefore understood by the person
concerned in the short term.
ii.
Secondly, the information and advice service should focus on checking
whether the information and advice given has the desired impact and reduces
demand for care. This suggests taking a longer term more planned approach
as part of a broad information and advice strategy.
7
David Boyle (2013) Barriers to Choice Review, Cabinet Office UK p. 45.
Page 37
4. The first point above – checking understanding – can be complicated by the fact
that many people who contact information and advice services are making calls
on behalf of others (rather than calling about their own care needs). It is important
to think through the potential impact of this for those on whose behalf an enquiry
is being made. As identified by Independent Age8:
 Is the person calling in receipt of all the necessary facts and can they
accurately portray the situation to the person giving the information and
advice?
 If information and advice is given to a third party, it must be sufficiently well
understood by those calling for them to be able to explain it in turn to the
person in need of care and support. Otherwise, by the time any information
and advice or decision reaches the person in need, it may be of a lesser
quality and with elements potentially missing, misunderstood, misconstrued,
or misrepresented.
Questions
 Does this raise any issues for you?
 How do you currently check whether information and advice given and/or the
information and advice service is effective?
Facilitators’ hints and tips
Depending on the audience, it might be useful to explore with learners how they
check that the information and advice they give has been understood. For example,
this could be via a role play between a practitioner and service user to practice
checking for understanding and impact of the information, and reflecting on what
went well or what was difficult.
Alternatively, it may be more appropriate to discuss with managers how the service
is currently evaluated or reviewed to establish its effectiveness. This could be a lead
in to the next slide about the authority’s strategic approach – if relevant.
8
Lorna Easterbrook (2011) Getting over the threshold for advice, Independent Age, p.7.
Page 38
12. A strategic approach
Slide 17
Notes
1. The guidance suggests that local authorities develop and implement a plan with
regard to their information and advice services and it offers a framework for this
based on four key elements:
i.
Engagement with people, carers and family members, to understand what is
working and not working for them and how their information and advice needs
can best be met. This will help local authorities in adopting a ‘co-production’
approach to their plan, by involving user groups and people themselves as
well as other appropriate statutory, commercial and voluntary sector service
providers, and making public the plan once finalised.
ii.
Analyse and understand the specific needs of its population and map the
range of information, advice and advocacy services, and different providers
available, to be able to judge the sufficiency of supply. Note that this will help
local authorities to meet their duties for understanding and promoting the
efficient and effective market of services under section 5 of the Act.
iii.
Coordination with other statutory bodies with an interest in care and support
is essential, including CCGs, Health and Wellbeing Boards, local Healthwatch
and neighbouring local authorities. The information and advice service should
be aligned with wider local authority strategies such as market position
statements, and with joint area strategies with health. The development and
implementation of a wider plan or strategy on the provision of information and
advice on care and support should be led by the local authority, acting as the
coordinator and where appropriate the commissioners of information and
advice services.
iv.
It is important to build into the plan opportunities to record, measure and
assess the impact of information and advice services rather than simply
service outputs. The plan should be reviewed at agreed intervals, and
effectiveness of the service evaluated and this information published.
Page 39
Questions
 If your local area has an information and advice strategy or plan, how do you
rate it? Are there any key points on which you think it should be improved?
 Is this part of the Health and Wellbeing Board’s strategy?
 If your local area does not have an information and advice strategy or plan,
what needs to be done to develop one? What have been the barriers to date
in developing a strategy?
Slide 18
Notes
1. Key principles9 for the provision of information to enable local authorities to fulfil
their role as set out in section 4 of the Act are:
1. People who use services and carers should be involved from an early stage in
the design of local information services, and should then have the opportunity
to give feedback.
2. Information must be readily available at the points in people’s lives when it is
most needed. Information should be available wherever people are likely to
look for it.
9
Think Local Act Personal (2013) Principles for the Provision of Information and Advice.
Page 40
3. Meet the language, communication and cultural needs of everyone in the
community.
4. It should be clearly designed to be understood by the public and to be of
practical use. It should avoid jargon and be written in plain English.
5. Be consistent, accurate and up-to-date so that people have confidence in it.
There should be clear lines of ownership accountability and responsibility for
maintaining information.
6. Councils should be confident that care and support information provided to
people in their area as part of their information strategy is good quality.
7. It is the council’s job to identify the needs of the whole population and the
likely pattern of future adult social care need – regardless of whether the
council will be funding this care. The local authority should also know what it
is like to be an individual looking for social care and support services in their
area, and where the problematic ‘pinch points’ are.
8. Be commissioned in tandem with advice, support and advocacy services.
9. Councils should draw on existing, good quality information from national
sources wherever this is applicable locally. They should also audit and
evaluate what is available before commissioning something new.
10. It is essential that local social care information links with wider sources of
information, across professional and organisational boundaries, on e.g.
benefits, health or housing. Signposting is a vital function, but it must be done
effectively and must not result in people being lost to the system. Councils will
need to monitor this, to ensure that people get the assistance they need and
do not hit brick walls.
11. The use of information should be evaluated, to make sure it is effective and
meeting people’s needs. That evaluation should then feed back into the
planning processes. It is important to ensure customer feedback is integral to
the council’s evaluation to make sure that the service learns from experience
and continuously improves.
Exercise
Complete the information and advice audit tool for your local information and advice
service. The tool is based on principles for providing information and advice that the
Think Local, Act Personal partnership established. Consider each statement in turn –
give each statement a mark out of 5, where 5 = strongly agree with the statement
and 0 = strongly disagree – and justify your mark in the right hand column.
Page 41
Information and advice audit tool
Statement
Score
(0 - 5)
Illustrative examples, comments
Service users and carers
were involved in
developing the
information and advice.
Information and advice is
available when people
need it.
Information and advice is
available where people
are likely to find it.
There are a range of
formats and channels for
people to get Information
and advice.
Information and advice
meets the needs of all
groups.
Information and advice is
clear, comprehensive and
impartial.
Information and advice is
consistent, accurate and
up to date.
Information and advice is
backed up by support
and advocacy services.
Information and advice
links to, and signposts to,
what other agencies
provide.
Feedback on information
and advice is gathered,
and action taken to
improve it.
Adapted from Research in Practice for Adults (2013) Practice Tool: Providing Good
Information and Advice, written by Geraldine Nosowska and © Dartington: Research in
Practice for Adults, reproduced with their kind permission.
Page 42
Strategic exercise
Thinking about your answers to the audit tool above and from what you now know
and understand about the Care Act, what are the key changes that need to be made
in the way information and advice is provided for people in your area?
We suggest to use the following prompts when thinking about your answer:
The audience
A universal service needs to have the broadest audience. There will need to be
information for the whole local population and targeted approaches towards
particular groups and particular stages in people’s journey(s) to care and support.
Content
An increasing emphasis on access to financial advice independent of the local
authority. Made more important with the 2016 changes and introduction of the care
cap.
Breadth
The integration of care and support arrangements and the interface/linkages with
related aspects – housing, prevention, NHS provision – and the requirement to work
with partners and community on how best
Delivery
Not just a web-based, digital approach to providing a service though this can be an
important element. This should not be regarded as a ‘traditional’ local authority
commissioned service. There will be aspects that the authority provides directly,
parts it may commission, parts it will need to work together with partners on and
aspects it will seek to influence.
Note: this highlights the importance of local strategic planning across the local
authority and with the local corporate approach as well as with partner organisations.
The guidance is clear that the Health and Wellbeing Boards who already have
responsibilities in this area provide the vehicle for this increasing co-ordinated and
strategic approach.
Facilitators’ hints and tips
More detailed support for the development of information and advice strategies is
being developed by http://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk and will be available an
interactive tool on their website in November 2014.
Page 43
13. Summary
Slide 19
Questions
 What has struck you most about this session?
 Thinking about what you have learnt about information and advice (and on
any other modules you have completed so far)...
 What links can you make between topic areas?
 How might the necessary changes impact on your current arrangements?
 What might the key challenges be?
Exercise
 What are your top three priorities in relation to information and advice?
 Complete the action plan to identify the next steps for each priority.
Page 44
Appendices
Strategic implications
What are some of the workforce implications?
 Information and advice services delivered or commissioned by the local
authority will need to be adequately staffed to meet the new requirements.
Local authorities should ensure that the service is delivered by “trained or
suitably qualified individuals” (3.68).

In particular, staff within a local authority and other frontline staff should have
the knowledge to direct people to the financial information and advice they
need. The guidance states that “Local authorities should ensure frontline staff
are able to support people to make good financial decisions.” (3.48)

There are further training implications for wider staff groups including relevant
front line staff in other organisations, including those coming into contact with
people at ‘trigger points’ for care and support.

Staff who will be affected by the new requirements include those listed below:
 public sector strategic managers of health and social care
 commissioners
 those working in information and advice services in the statutory, private
and voluntary sectors, including those working in one stop shops, and
including those who have a role in giving financial information and advice
 care and support and housing providers
 social workers and care managers
 care and support brokers
 local authority communications and ICT staff.
Can you think of others?
Page 45
What are some of the systems implications (e.g. paper work, IT, processes,
etc)?
 Local authorities need to think more widely about information and advice, not
just as a topic in its own right but because it links across into prevention and
into markets: For example:
 What market information should be available about care services and who
provides or assures this?
 How will local authorities record information and advice given to people
who do not have eligible needs for care and support services?

It should also be noted that the Children and Families Act 2014 contains
similar requirements about providing a local information and advice ‘offer’.
Given this, local authorities should consider jointly commissioning and
delivering their information and advice services. Adults’ services will need to
link to directories/databases/systems in other parts of the council as well as
linking to health mapping or signposting to services to ensure consistency and
that preventative and community resources are offered as early choices.

In terms of information management systems, given the breadth of content
necessary to meet the new requirements, the implications may be far
reaching, depending on the strengths of existing local arrangements. Local
authorities will need to:
 audit existing data sources against requirements to identify where there
are gaps and where information needs updating
 collect missing data and publish it
 ensure robust processes are in place to keep information updated.
Can you think of others?
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What are some of the financial implications?
 Information and advice services delivered or commissioned by the local
authority will need to be adequately resourced to meet the new requirements.

How does the local authority get a better understanding of what people want
and how current information sources are used? In particular how does the
authority test the quality of information offered and test whether people use it
to good effect? This may require more resources than currently allocated to
reviewing this area.

They should also review and publish how effective their information systems
are (including customer satisfaction).

Local authorities will need to have a strategy and delivery plan for information
and advice.
Can you think of others?
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Links to key resources
ADASS IMG (2014) Developing online information services. This sets out a range of
issues that local authorities will need to think about in relation to the provision of
online information and advice and how we can work collectively to build a more
robust framework for evaluating the broader cost-effectiveness of its delivery.
Age UK (2013) Information and advice for older people: Evidence Review. This link
takes you to a page listing recent and relevant publications, authored by or jointly by
Age UK. It includes a toolkit ‘Involve, engage, empower’ aimed at advice-giving
agencies. The Evidence Review is also downloadable from here and forms part of a
series Age UK have produced for those commissioning, developing services, raising
funds or influencing decision-making.
Sarah Anderson (2011) Complex Responses. Understanding poor frontline
responses to adults with multiple needs: A review of the literature and analysis of
contributing factors. This report is the result of a large scoping review of the
research literature in an attempt to understand the many and complex reasons
behind poor frontline service responses to adults with multiple needs, with a
particular focus on those in contact with the criminal justice system.
BCD Care Associates (2011) Research Report Number 1 ‘At the click of a mouse’
Searching council websites for information about residential care for older people.
Based on a review of 50 UK council websites accessed in December 2010, this
study found that information was generally difficult to access (even for the
experienced researchers), though some sites were excellent.
Simon Bottery and James Holloway (2013) Advice and information needs in adult
social care. Think Local Act Personal. This link is to an interactive map tracing
peoples’ typical journeys through the complicated care system and identifying where
information and advice needs risk not being sufficiently met.
David Boyle (2013) The Barriers to Choice Review: How are people using choice in
public services? Cabinet Office. This link takes you to a page where you can
download the report, the survey it was based on, and the Government’s initial
response. It covers social care, education and health. Although many people felt
they had enough information the report highlights peoples’ desire for more face-toface help with making choices.
Anna Dixon, et al (2010) Choosing a high-quality hospital: the role of nudges,
scorecard design and information. The Kings Fund. This report explores how
information can help patients make informed choices and includes some practical
suggestions on how to present information well.
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LGA (no date) Care Act Informatics Available at: http://www.local.gov.uk/caresupport-reform/-/journal_content/56/10180/6343526/ARTICLE (no date) (Accessed:
15 October 2014). This webpage aims to keep people posted on key developments,
provide information on a number of essential changes, provide advice and support
and respond to practical questions in relation to digital approaches and IT systems.
Lorna Easterbrook (2011) Getting over the threshold for advice: Issues arising from
the Care Quality Commission’s unpublished review of English social services’
response to people’s ‘first contact’ for information, advice, help or support.
Independent Age. This report draws on data originally gathered but not published by
the Care Quality Commission on the ‘first contact’ people have with an English local
authority. The analysis contained here suggests authorities will need to significantly
improve their ability to inform, advise and assist those who do not meet local criteria
on the basis of their needs but who may still benefit from services, support or
suggestions. Improvements are also identified for those who the meet needs criteria
but who will self fund their care.
Melanie Henwood and Bob Hudson (2009) A Parallel Universe? People who fund
their own care and support: A review of the literature and research into the existing
provision of information and advice. Putting People First. This is the final report of a
research project looking at the provision of information and advice for people who
fund their own social care.
Melanie Henwood and the Institute of Public Care (2011) People who pay for care:
An analysis of self-funders in the social care market. Putting People First. A
quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sample of self funders, including their
experience trying to obtain appropriate information, advice or advocacy.
Plain English Campaign Crystal Mark Available at
http://plainenglish.co.uk/services/crystal-mark.html (no date) (Accessed 26 August
2014). This page gives guidance about the crystal mark logo, gives an A-Z of
alternative words and has links to free guides such as ‘How to write in plain English’.
Research in Practice for Adults (2013) Practice Tool: Providing Good Information
and Advice. A tool to help practitioners consider what information and advice is, and
how to ensure that practice supports people to receive it.
SCIE website http://www.scie.org.uk/findmegoodcare The website combines advice
and information about choosing care with a database of councils and their contact
details and a list of organisations providing advice and support services who may be
able to help you as you consider your care options.
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Think Local Act Personal (2013) Making it Real for Carers. Includes a guide to help
assess what is working and what needs to work better. This can also be used as a
checklist to inform an organisations business planning processes and frameworks.
Think Local Act Personal Information, advice and brokerage Available at
http://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Browse/Informationandadvice/ (no date)
(Accessed: 16 July 2014). This page provides links to information and a range of
resources to support the development of services. These include an interactive map
of a typical ‘advice and information journey’, principles to underpin provision and
case study examples. These have been used as background to three interrelated
documents covering planning, commissioning and delivering services:
Part 1: Planning, commissioning and delivery information, advice and brokerage in
the context of the Care Act – explores the implementation challenge and makes
linkages to other important duties in the Act re market shaping and prevention
Part 2: Gearing up for change – summarises key themes and learning from detailed
work we did with six councils to understand how they are approaching the IAB
challenge, spanning web-based information, contact centres, partnership
approaches with GP practices and community brokerage models
Part 3: Seeing the benefits: understanding and monitoring the benefits of IAB
services – offers some pragmatic suggestions for how outcomes of IAB services can
be better understood and measured and a practical checklist for commissioners
Think Local Act Personal Information and advice strategies Available at
http://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Latest/Resource/?cid=8052 (20/01/2011)
(Accessed: 16 July 2014). Includes access to a framework to support councils in
developing their local strategies for information and advice. An interactive tool to
support the development of an information and advice strategy to meet the Care Act
duties is being developed and will be available on the TLAP website in November
2014.
Cathie Williams, et al (2009) Transforming adult social care: access to information,
advice and advocacy. Improvement and Development Agency and Local
Government Association, London. This review is based on activity and research
evidence in adult social care and develops recommendations for models of good
practice in the three areas.
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Karen Windle, et al (2010) Measuring the outcomes of information and advice
services: final report. Discussion Paper 2713, Personal Social Services Research
Unit, University of Kent, Canterbury. This research formed part of the ‘Measuring
Outcomes for Public Service Users’ project which aimed to enable the measurement
of robust and valid outcomes within and across information, advice and advocacy
services. The proposed model covers three levels across which benefit might be
measured: societal, organizational and individual.
Which? Social Care (2014) The Care Maze: The challenges of navigating care for
older people. A report that looks at consumer experiences of arranging care and
support for older people. Drawing on research conducted by Which, it outlines
recommendations for improving information and advice for people needing care and
their families under the new system of care and support being brought in by the Care
Act.
Handouts
Handouts relevant to this topic area:

Handout: Financial information and advice

Exercise: Information and advice audit tool

Handout: Key changes

Case study: Florence and Mary Brown (information and advice)

Case study: Mr O’Hanlon

Case study: Gundeep