DH publishes 2011-12 social care outcomes framework
The Department of Health has published its response to the consultation on adult social care outcomes and published a framework document providing more detail on the specific areas agreed for inclusion in the first Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF), for the year from April 2011.
All proposals for outcome measures have been agreed between the Department of Health, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Group.
The new framework has four domains, each with their own outcome indicators, and these replace the national indicators used by the last Government.
The new domains are:
Domain 1: Enhancing quality of life for people with care and support needs
Domain 2: Delaying and reducing the need for care and support
Domain 3: Ensuring that people have a positive experience of care and support
Domain 4: Safeguarding adults whose circumstances make them vulnerable and protecting from avoidable harm
Domain 1 keeps the national employment indicators used to measure employment rates for people with a learning disability known to Social Services and people using secondary mental health services. The indicators are slightly amended.
Domain 1 contains 4 outcome statements and these are:
* People live their own lives to the full and achieve the outcomes which matter to them by accessing and receiving high quality support and information.
* Carers can balance their caring roles and maintain their desired quality of life.
* People manage their own support as much as they wish, so that are in control of what, how and when support is delivered to match their needs.
* People are able to find employment when they want, maintain a family and social life and contribute to community life, and avoid loneliness or isolation.
The new employment-related outcome indicators are:
1E. Proportion of adults with learning disabilities in paid employment. The definition of this measure has been amended to clarify the focus, and to expand the scope to include all those with learning disabilities receiving a service from the council (in the past, only those reviewed in the previous year could be counted).
1F. Proportion of adults in contact with secondary mental health services in paid employment. This is an equivalent measure for people in contact with secondary mental health services, and on the Care Programme Approach. The definition will be similarly amended to focus on paid employment, and expand the scope by removing the requirement for a review to have been undertaken. In the longer-term, the ambition is to remove the need for an individual to be on the Care Programme Approach, subject to development of the data source.
* It is proposed that a new indicator be used in the future to replace 1E and 1F. This would be for the proportion of working age adults in contact with social services in paid employment. This would include all working age (aged 18-64 years) adults, and would replace the two outcome measures currently included in the ASCOF. The current measures would continue to be available as disaggregates of the overall measure, but it would also include core groups, such as working age adults with physical disabilities, which are currently not included.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Responsestoconsultations/DH_125464
