A short presentation breaking down the Eligibility criteria research by the Scottish Children's Commissioner.

1. Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Social work services for disabled
children and young people and
their families
Assessment and eligibility

2. Research objectives
• Establish current practices in local authorities
across Scotland in terms of eligibility criteria and
assessment tools.
• Discover if there has been any change to criteria and
tools.
• Explore how variations in practice or changing criteria
might affect services and access to them.
• Establish whether the level of accessibility and
availability of services match the legislative and policy
commitments in Scotland.

3. What did we do?
• Phase 1
– FOI request made by the Commissioner to all 32
local authorities.
• Phase 2
– Survey of all local authorities - social work services
• 23 responded.
– Discussion groups with social work professionals
in two case study areas.
– One interview with a social work professional
– Interview with two Scottish Government
representatives.

4. Current practice
• Service users
• Budget, caseloads & staffing
• Monitoring
• Services provided
• Charging
• Assessment tools
• Eligibility criteria

5. Current practice: who are the
services for?
• 2 said their local authority does not cover
hearing impairments and 1 does not cover
mental health problems.
• Differences in approach to autistic spectrum
disorder.
• Definition of disability still an issue?
– Impacts on eligibility.

6. Current practice: budget,
caseloads & staffing
• Seems to have been less affected by cuts than other
areas:
– Only one local authority reported their budget being smaller
than it was five years ago.
– About half said the budget had increased and half staying
about the same.
– But concerns about both the impact on families & the future.
• But, most local authorities (16) have experienced a
rise in caseload in the last five years.
– And, of those, only 6 reported a rise in staffing levels and
only 8 a rise in budget.

7. Current practice: performance
monitoring
• Most authorities (19) reported problems with waiting
times, but:
– 10 did not have a target for how quickly an assessment will
be done
– 16 did not have a target for how quickly services will be put
in place
• And:
– 9 do not monitor waiting times
– Only 4 monitor waiting times up to the point of provision.

8. Current practice: services
provided
Meals
Telephone equipment
Equipment for recreational need
Home help
Travel
Befriending
Leisure facilities/schemes
Sibling & carer support groups
Play schemes
Support to parents
Access to suitable housing
Occupational therapy
Practical assistance
Equipment & adaptations
Short break respite
Residential respite
Day care
0 5 10 15 20

9. Current practice: charging
Practical assistance
Equipment for recreational
Leisure facilities/schemes
Travel
Equipment & adaptations
Short break respite
Residential respite
Meals
Telephone equipment
Befriending
Play schemes
Home help
Day care
Support to parents
Access to suitable housing
Occupational therapy
Sibling & carer support groups
0 3 7 10 13 16 20 23
Always provide free Contribution sometimes Contribution always

10. Current practice: assessment
• Process
– While most publish key information about assessment:
• only about 2/3s publish information about the factors taken into
account when deciding whether to provide services, and
• only one local authority reported publishing information
specifically for children.
– Assessment process is usually, but not always, explained to
children and young people and their families.
– Most provide the opportunity for children and young people
to participate directly in their assessment.

11. Current practice: assessment
• The tools used
– 22 have tools in place for assessing children but only 12
specifically for disabled children and young people.
– Differences in how far a multi-agency approach to
assessment has been adopted
• 6 local authorities reported not yet using a multi-agency
assessment tool
• Content of the tools differs - some more detailed than others;
some more GIRFEC based than others.
• Still an issue around multiple assessments and
duplication.

12. Current practice: eligibility
criteria
• Why use them?
• When are they used?
• What do they look like?
• Complexities
– Differences in definitions
– Differences in when used

13. How have things changed?
• Eligibility
• Assessment
• Charging
• Referrals
• Services

14. Impact of variation
• Variation does lead to differences in, for
example:
– the experience of assessment process
– types of services received
– the amount of money paid
• But, difficult to conclude if one area is
meeting need better than any other.

15. Meeting commitments?
• Some specific gaps in specific authorities,
e.g
– Planning & monitoring
– Publishing information
– Involving children & young people
• But, difficult to conclude overall.

16. Meeting commitments?
23
20
16
13
10
7
3
0
All Most vulnerable
Always Most of the time Some of the time

17. Stefan Stoyanov
Policy Officer
Email: stefan.stoyanov@sccyp.org.uk
Tel: 0131 558 3733