Adults with incapacity
Part 4 of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 (the Act) allows care home managers to apply to the Care Inspectorate to manage money for service users in certain circumstances, these are:
- that the service is an authorised establishment
- the adult is a resident with incapacity
- that the resident has less than £10,000 (usually)
- the manager of home takes certain steps to manage finances
- money is not derived from benefits.
AWI application form
This form is in two parts. It allows a manager of an authorised establishment to:
- Notify the Care Inspectorate that they intend to manage a resident’s financial affairs.
- Apply for a Certificate of Authority to withdraw and spend the resident’s funds.
Detailed information about managing residents’ finances is available in the Code of Practice for Managers under Part 4 of the Act (the Code)
As a result of the UK Government’s emergent Welfare Reform, references to a number of UK wide benefits identified within the codes have required to be up-dated.
Appendix 1 of the codes refers to particular benefits which cannot be managed under the act. An update of some named benefits was necessary to reflect changes throughout the UK legislation.
In addition, some changes have been made to the examples of goods and services which can be purchased through the use of personal funds, as set out in Appendix 6.
It is very important that you have fully considered the code before completing this form. We need detailed information in order to be satisfied about the steps you have taken before reaching a decision to manage a resident’s finances. Once completed, please send this form to your local Care Inspectorate office with a Certificate of Incapacity completed by a medical practitioner.
You can download a copy of the application form here.
AWI Register
Instructions for use of the AWI Register for Managers
- Click on AWI Register
- Save and file to your computer/server
- Add in the name of your service
- Save copy
- Enter information relating to the interventions in place under Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 in the appropriate page.
- A DWP appointeeships section is included, should you wish to use this section.
- Ensure that the most recent copy of the register is available for inspectors at inspection.
Change of manager where there are Certificates of Authority
When there is a change of manager, we should be informed as soon as is possible. The outgoing manager must ensure that the resident has sufficient funds in place while an application to vary the Certificate of Authority is made.
The new manager must apply for a new Certificate of Authority using the specified form.
Download a copy of the application to vary form here.
Transfer/move of a resident with a Certificate of Authority to another care service
When a resident who has a Certificate of Authority moves from one care home to another, the manager must do the following:
- inform the Care Inspectorate
- inform the care home to which the resident is going
- inform the local authority/care manager
- check that the care home service to which they are moving is an Authorised Established and not Opted Out (see guidance on Opt Out)
- inform the fund holder.
Managers’ continued involvement after resident moves/transfers
When an incapable resident ceases to be in an authorised establishment, the manager of the establishment must continue to manage his/her affairs for an interim period of up to 3 months. This allows time for other arrangements, new certificate of authority to be applied for or the certificate to be revoked.
The need for the manager to continue their role should be considered by the multi-disciplinary team overseeing he resident’s care planning.
The manager must provide the new care service with the resident’s financial records and statements, and return the Certificate of Authority once this is done.
The manager of the service to which the resident has moved to must then make a new application for a Certificate of Authority.
Death of a resident where there is a Certificate of Authority
When a resident dies and there is a Certificate of Authority in place the manager must take the following steps:
- notify the Care Inspectorate immediately
- notify the fundholder
- prepare a statement of accounts for the resident
- return the Certificate of Authority along with the statement of accounts.
Procedure to be followed where a care home closes or registration is cancelled
Where a care home closes voluntarily or through enforcement action, and there are Certificates of Authority in place, the following must be done:
- All Certificates of Authority must be returned to the Care Inspectorate.
- The financial records and statements of the resident(s) must be forwarded to the new care home, where the resident is to be cared for.
Please refer to information above on the movement/transfer of residents where there is a Certificate of Authority.
Guidance on the Payment of Fees to Doctors under Part 4 of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000
Under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 (the Act) doctors may carry out an assessment of an individual to assess capacity.
Capacity is defined within the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 as being incapable of:
- acting; or
- making decisions; or
- communicating decisions; or
- understanding decisions; or
- retaining memory of decisions,
by reason of mental disorder or of an inability to communicate because of physical disability. Where a doctor has made an assessment of capacity, and deems that person not to have capacity, a certificate of incapacity will be issued under Part 4 of the Act. This certificate is valid for 3 years.
Fees
A fee may be charged by the doctor carrying out the assessment of capacity and this can be taken from the funds of the adult.
Useful Links
The Office of the Public Guardian
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Protecting vulnerable groups scheme
Our existing Protecting Vulnerable Groups – Guidance for Care Inspectorate Staff and Service Providers advises that providers should seek updates on individual staff PVG Scheme membership every three years.
This is not a requirement of Disclosure Scotland but rather our advice for safe recruitment good practice.
Where someone has previously only been a member of the PVG scheme for children and will now be working with vulnerable adults (or the other way round) an application to join the appropriate scheme must still be made.
If you have any questions in relation to this please contact your inspector.
In February 2011, the Scottish Government introduced a new membership scheme to replace and improve upon the current disclosure arrangements for people who work with vulnerable groups.
The Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme (PVG Scheme) will:
- Help to ensure that those who have regular contact with children and protected adults through paid and unpaid work do not have a known history of harmful behaviour.
- Be quicker and easier to use, reducing the need for PVG Scheme members to complete a detailed application form every time a disclosure check is required.
- Strike a balance between proportionate protection and robust regulation and make it easier for employers to determine who they should check to protect their client group.
The PVG Scheme is managed and delivered by Disclosure Scotland.
The Care Inspectorate, as a scrutiny body, has the following duties:
- Ensure that we are satisfied about the fitness of providers and managers of registered services.
- Ensure that providers of services implement the PVG scheme appropriately as part of the safe recruitment of the managers and staff of care services
- Ensure that we use our power to refer providers and supply information required by DS appropriately.
Read our guidance that sets out how we will achieve these duties and what we expect from providers of care services.
Referrals for consideration to Dislcosure Soctland
For this scheme to work successfully, it is necessary for organisations to pass information to Disclosure Scotland where they consider that an individual may not be suitable to do regulated work so that this can be properly evaluated and appropriate action taken. Referrals can be made to Disclosure Scotland by employers and regulatory bodies such as the Care Inspectorate. These referrals will then be considered by Disclosure who will assess whether the individual should be barred from regulated work.
Read our guidance to find out more about refererals, consideration for listing, risk assessment and determinations.
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Joint inspections of integrated services for adults
Along with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, we carry out joint inspections of health and social work services for adults. From April 2016 Integration Joint Boards have been in place made up of representatives from NHS boards, local authorities third and independent sectors and those who use health and social care services. The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland Act) 2014 and guidance aims to ensure the provision of seamless, consistent, efficient and high-quality services, which deliver very good outcomes for individuals and carers. Each local partnership had to produce a joint commissioning strategy and a joint integration plan, for adult services. From 2017 we carried out inspections of health and social care integration focussing on progress made in strategic planning and commissioning.
Following a review of progress in health and social care integration by a Ministerial Strategic Group we have been working together with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop an updated inspection methodology, including a set of quality indicators to inspect against. This methodology is to determine how effectively health and social work services work in partnership, including the third and independent sectors, to deliver very good outcomes across the whole adult population
The inspection teams are made up of inspectors and associate inspectors from both the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland and clinical advisers seconded from NHS boards. We plan to have inspection volunteers who are members of the public who use a care service, have used a care service in the past or are carers and Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s public partners on each of our inspections.
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MAPPA review
The Care Inspectorate and HMICS gave a commitment to work collaboratively with other scrutiny bodies to undertake a proportionate, risk-based and intelligence led review of the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) in Scotland. The joint review foccused on Category 1 offenders subject to the Sex Offender Notification Requirements.
The review was published on Thursday 26 November 2015.
The purpose of the joint thematic review was be to assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the MAPPA in Scotland, in terms of keeping people safe and reducing the potential risk of serious harm by registered sex offenders in our communities.
The review objectives were to:
- assess how effective the responsible authorities are in the discharge of their statutory duties, under terms of the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005, including adherence to national guidance and good practice.
- assess how effective the processes are in relation to MAPPA Significant Case Reviews AND the arrangements that are in place to promote organisational learning and development across the responsible authorities.
While the report notes that the number of registered sex offenders in Scotland continues to rise, it also highlights key strengths in the way they are managed by organisations including the police, social work services and the prison service
You can download a copy of the report here and read the press release in our news archive.
A progress review was published in June 2017. You can find the report here.
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Joint inspection of services for children and young people
What do we do?
In 2017, the Scottish Government’s child protection improvement programme set out a vision for a child protection system in Scotland that places the wellbeing of children at the heart of everything it does. Scottish Ministers asked the Care Inspectorate to work with scrutiny partners to take a more focused look at children and young people in need of care and protection.
Our joint inspections therefore take account of the experiences and outcomes of such children and young people by looking at the services provided for them by community planning partnerships in each local authority area. This includes the work of health visitors, school nurses, teachers, doctors, social workers, police officers and lots of other people who work with children, young people and their families.
What is our approach?
When we engaged with children and young people about the focus of inspections, their most important message to us was that children and young people should be enabled to experience sincere human contact and enduring relationships. They want to be able to build trust through consistent relationships with adults and they want to be supported to maintain contact with those people who are most important in their lives. Our approach therefore looks carefully at how well the system is organised to ensure that they can experience continuity in their care and develop and sustain lasting relationships.
We believe that staff who are well trained and supported, and who feel valued and empowered, are more likely to be able to provide high quality services for children and young people. We will therefore explore how well staff are valued, supported and equipped to carry out their task. We know from our inspection findings that partners recognise the critical importance of achieving high standards in assessment and planning to ensure the safety of, and improve outcomes for, children and young people. However, we also know that performance in assessment and planning is not as consistently strong across the country as it needs to be and we will look at the extent to which robust quality assurance and high quality reflective supervision are in place.
Our inspections will also consider the appropriate use of legal measures to achieve security and stability in the lives of vulnerable children. Strong collaborative leadership is essential within the challenging context of providing high quality public services in an integrated landscape. Inspections will include a focus on the role played by staff who work in adult services in protecting children and young people and supporting sustained positive change for them and their families.
We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative leadership, including leadership of the child protection committee and its relationship with chief officers, and we will identify any barriers that affect continued improved performance. We will look at how well leaders can demonstrate what difference they are, together, making to the lives of children in need of protection and those for whom they are corporate parents.
We started the current round of joint inspections of services for children in need of care and protection in August 2018 and will continue to review and revise the approach over the course of these inspections.
How do we do it?
Our inspections last for a number of months. We collect information about the area before we visit it. This helps us to understand what happens there and what is affecting the way that services are being provided.
During the inspection, a team of inspectors from the Care Inspectorate and other partner agencies visit the area over two separate weeks.
This gives us the chance to find out if children, young people and their families are getting the help that they need and if services are making a difference to their lives. To do this we:
- speak with the staff
- speak with children and young people and listen to their views
- speak with parents and carers
- read information about the children and young people.
What individual people tell us during inspection is confidential. Our reports do not include any information about them or their family, or anything that could identify them. However, we do have a duty to pass on information if there are concerns about someone’s safety.
After our inspection, we publish a report on our website about what we found for the area. Our inspection reports set out what works well and what could improve. We expect the community planning partnership to take action on any recommendations we make for improvements.
For more information about what happens during an inspection click here for The Guide.
How can you get involved?
What you think really matters. If we are inspecting your area, and you have experience of services, you may want to speak to us about the help that you have been getting.
We will offer a range of ways for you to give us feedback. As well as a survey we will arrange one-to-one discussions and group meetings. Our one-to-one discussions can take place in person, or we can contact you by phone or other ways such as Facetime or Skype.
If you give us information anonymously, we may not be able to get in contact with you if you raise concerns about your own safety or the safety of anyone else. If you have such concerns we would encourage you to contact your local authority and ask for their child protection or adult protection service. You can also contact Childline on 0800 1111. If we have any concerns about the safety of individuals we will share this with protection agencies.
Our inspection team also includes young inspection volunteers. These are young people aged 18 – 26 with experience of care services who help us with our inspections. If you are a young person, you can choose to speak with one of them and you can have a person to support you when you meet them. If you are a young person and want to know more about young inspection volunteers or how to get involved, click here to find out more.
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