Dorset County Council makes charges fairer for adult social care

Civica’s OnDemand Adult Social Care team supports the introduction of a fairer ASC charging policy by Dorset County Council.

In line with the Care Act, Dorset County Council has revised its charging policy for adult social care (ASC) services. Called ‘Making Charges Fairer’, the policy involves a more personalised assessment of each service user’s disability-related expenditure, as well as an income maximisation check.

While new service users are assessed under the new policy, the financial support team in the council’s adult and community services department needed to review all 2,900 existing users’ assessments. The timing was challenging, as organisational changes had expanded the team’s workload. Recruitment was well in hand, but time and effort were needed to get new joiners up to speed. In addition, deployment of a new financial system was underway.

Outcomes

• ASC financial reassessments carried out accurately by skilled, experienced personnel
• Assessment reviews completed on time, ready for the new financial year
• Council’s own financial support team freed up to focus on business as usual and training new staff
• Ongoing support with new ASC financial assessments allows in-house staff to finalise migration to new financial system.

 The Civica OnDemand assessors were efficient and effective, and really took the strain off my team. Quality-checking a sample of the cases confirmed that their assessments were accurate.”

Julie Caswell, Financial Support Manager — Adult and Community Services, Dorset County Council

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