Archived decisions
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY SERVICE
1 The Occupational Therapy Service is one of the three field work services within the Physical Disabilities and Sensory Services care group - the others being Sensory Services and Care Management Services for adults with a physical disability. The service plan for Physical disability states that:
'Physical Disability and Sensory Services by working in partnership will ensure consistent quality services, promoting independence, choice, empowerment, skills rights and participation'
2 The Occupational Therapy Service within Hampshire Social Services employs 100 Occupational Therapy staff (76 FTEs) working from 8 bases across the county including Social Services Direct - Occupational Therapy (OT Direct). They work with people of all ages who have a disability which affects their ability to live an independent life by identifying their needs and potential outcomes, which may include training in different techniques to manage their independence, provision of equipment or adaptations.
3 OT is managed within specialist teams. There was a need to rethink the way in which Occupational Therapy Services were accessed as a consequence of the following factors:
· Waiting times for an Occupational Therapy assessment
· Differential access arrangements across the county
· Users indicating that with some pointers they could aid themselves
· Challenge of attracting sufficient qualified OT staff.
4 OT Direct was developed following investigation and research with other local authorities and analysing how referrals were being processed within Hampshire. It was felt that by re-engineering the whole way people access the service, offering facilitated telephone assessment with direct referral to Equipment and Technician Service, 40% of referrals to Occupational Therapy Service could be dealt with at that point without the need for an Occupational Therapy visit.
5 Service users are now empowered to request simple equipment and adaptations through discussion with trained service centre advises who are supported by the OT Helpdesk within the service centre.
6 The service is improving customer service by utilising both service centre technology and web tools to ensure a quicker and more direct service for customers. Additionally, enhanced opening hours (8.00 a.m. - 8.00 p.m.) as well as standardising referrals, and giving consistent information to customers, has improved service quality and outcomes.
7 The use of trained advisers has freed up scarce professional OT resources to focus on reducing waiting lists and working with people with more complex need. 45% of referral to the OT Service are now dealt with by OT Direct.
8 Reducing the number of referrals which need a full OT assessment through home visit has produced a 35% reduction in OT waiting lists across Hampshire during the first 6 months of operation, though waiting lists are still long.
9 The priorities within the service are to deal with Hospital discharge and terminal illness cases within a week, along with others classified as critical in the Fair Access to Care (FACS) Criteria.
10 OT Direct is handling 370 referrals per week at the service centre and it has had 10,000 referrals for the service since it was introduced at the beginning of the year.
11 OT Direct has recently been shortlisted for the 2004 Local Government IT Excellence Awards, but was not successful in winning overall.
12 The Occupational Therapy Service benefits from the close interfaces with many of the organisations that are partners of the County Council. The following lists some of these arrangements.
13 The OT Service interfaces with District Councils and Housing Associations with respect of Disabled Facilities Grants and adaptations to property. This is quite often both practically challenging in terms of the adaptation/building work and complex in terms of the funding arrangements and ongoing maintenance making this time intensive work.
14 The OT service works closely with OT colleagues in Health Organisations focussing on positive outcomes for service users. The County Manager for PD and Sensory Services, chairs a forum of OT Team and Service Manages from Hampshire Social Services, Hampshire PCTs and Acute Trusts. The aim is to promote closer working relationships, share good practice, and develop services consistently across the county. The position throughout the county has been varied.
15 Recruitment of qualified Therapists into Hampshire Social Services during the past year has been increasingly challenging and recently cabinet agreed to a market supplement of £1000 for qualified OT's.
16 The development of OT Direct has impacted positively on the work in the area teams, but there is still need to review the service to achieve a further reduction in waiting times, and to ensure grater consistency across the county. It is proposed to undertake a review of the service which will investigate the issues and challenges.
17 The Occupational Therapy Service in Hampshire Social Services is a strong professional service which has user outcomes and independence at the core of its activity. The reconfiguration into specialist OT teams together with the development of OT Direct has achieved improved outcomes for service users and a greater consistency across the county.
18 The forthcoming review of the service will aim to ensure that it becomes a service which will meet users needs in the future.
19 This supports Aims 1, 5 and 6 of the Corporate Strategy.
FELICITY HINDSON, MBE
Executive Member for Social Care
4IR1021104