Information Matters: Delivering the universal information service

By 2011, all Local Authorities must provide… “Universal, joined-up information and advice available for all individuals and carers, including those who self-assess and fund, which enables people to access information from all strategic partners.” ¹

Information is a core component of all choice-based agendas, empowering citizens to make informed decisions. Personalisation in particular requires quality information to fully realise the goal of user-centric care, but also raises a number of key challenges:

• Fragmentation of information across multiple partners.
• Consistency of information across numerous delivery channels.
• Coverage of information to deliver a one-stop-shop service.
• Integration with the care process from first point of contact, through support planning and brokerage, all the way to management and review.

This years National Children and Adult Services (NCAS) conference saw an increased focus on the need for quality information management to underpin the transformation of adult social care. In particular, the timely publishing of the transforming social care milestones² set out the following requirements:

• By April 2010 every council has a strategy in place to create universal information and advice services.
• By October 2010 the council has put in place arrangements for universal access to information and advice.
• By April 2011 the public are informed about where they can go to get the best information and advice about their care and support needs.

To support the development of information strategies we would recommend starting by exploring the issues for four main stakeholder groups:

Providers

The personalisation agenda represents a transformational challenge for service providers who in order to succeed must not only provide excellent services but are also required to market their provision directly to the public. Questions to consider include:

• Are you providing a trusted marketplace for your providers?
• Are you qualifying providers with an accreditation scheme?
• How are you ensuring provider and service information is up-to-date?
• Does your provider list cover the full range of services made possible by personalisation?

Commissioners

Smart commissioning is essential to delivering personalisation, requiring that commissioners shape the market to ensure local needs are met³. There are several informational challenges for commissioners that arise with the move to personalisation:

• How are you capturing feedback on services?
• Do you have good data on the supply of all relevant services?
• Are you aware of unmet demand?
• Are you gathering integrated management information across channels and partners?

Front-line Information, Advice and Advocacy (IAA)

Local Authorities adhere to the principle of delivering information at a place and in a format convenient to the citizen. However, the proliferation of touch points with the citizen introduces complex demands for those tasked with delivering the universal information service:

• Who is collecting and updating your services information?
• Who is responsible for ongoing quality assurance of your information?
• How are you supporting partners in their IAA role?
• How are you integrating face-to-face, online, telephone, mediated and self-service delivery channels?
• Are you focused on minimising referrals to deliver a one-stop-shop at the first point of contact?

Service users and self funders

Supporting service users and their carers with good information about service availability is essential to enable them to make the best choices about their care. Issues to consider include:

• Are you facilitating peer-to-peer recommendation?
• Is your information accessible?
• Do you support multiple delivery channels?
• Have you co-designed your delivery to cater for local need?
• Does your information service support both service users and self-funders?

Each of these four stakeholder groups must be engaged by your information strategy to ensure that personalised marketplaces function effectively. To support Local Authorities in developing their strategic approach, we launched ‘Information Matters’ at this years NCAS conference; the first of a set of tools defining the context for the universal information service and providing guidance on its implementation. It can be downloaded for free here: http://bit.ly/tasc-infomatters or please contact us directly for a printed copy.

References:

1 Local Authority Circular (DH)(2009)1: Transforming Adult Social Care http://bit.ly/tasc-lac2009

2 Progress measures for the delivery of transforming adult social care (DH, ADASS, LGA, 2009) http://bit.ly/tasc-milestones

3 Personalisation briefing: Implications for commissioners (SCIE, DH, ADASS, 2009) http://bit.ly/tasc-commissioners