6. DEVELOPING NEEDS LED COMMON ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
The Current Situation
The definition of assessment and the principles discussed earlier combine to allow the consideration of a needs led model of assessment. They focus on the process of assessment, with an explicit assumption at the outset that all partners act as interdependent stakeholders who share a collective responsibility. Ultimately the client benefits from an experience of co-ordinated services that seek to maximise continuity and progression.
Many organisations work with unemployed people at various points on the pathway that may eventually lead them to sustainable employment, even although this may not be part of the organisational objectives for their clients. This includes organisations which:
- provide or support a range of positive activities, such as volunteering, community learning, etc.
- deliver services (such as money advice or addictions counselling) not focussed on enhancing employability.
- offer projects or services developing basic skills, raising confidence or otherwise promoting employability among those more distant from the labour market.
- focus services on more vocational skills targeted at labour market opportunities.
- work to support job search and other activities close to the point of job entry.
- look ahead - for example, organisations working together to deliver the proposed new skills health checks.
Key partners will vary across settings but are likely to include:
- Community groups
- JobCentre Plus
- NHS
- Providers and contractors from the private, public, not for profit sectors
- Secondary schools and support services.
- Service user groups
- Skills Development Scotland
- Social Work
- Voluntary sector
Business Case for a Common Assessment Framework
To invest in a Common Assessment Framework, there needs to be some return for the participating organisations in terms of greater effectiveness for their clients and/or resource savings. It must work for organisations, or clients will not get the potential gains. It is not sufficient for this to be seen as a 'good thing' - it has to generate good value for services and their clients relative to any of the costs and risks associated with its implementation.
In a situation where different agencies repeatedly collect and assess similar information for the same clients, there must be considerable scope for realising both of these requirements. This scope can be divided up into more effective services from the client perspective and resource savings in service delivery from the organisational perspective.
Resource Saving
For the service delivery organisations there are significant potential resource savings from a Common Assessment Framework.
- It saves time by minimising staff input required to assess or re-assess clients.
- It generates economies of scale in developing and maintaining skill levels of staff involved in assessment though joint training across organisations.
- It helps organisations do better on service targets for a given resource, because of the enhanced service to the client.
Service Effectiveness
The benefits of a Common Assessment Framework for clients can be articulated as follows.
- It removes the disjointed experiences faced by clients.
- It raises awareness of employability among cognate professionals as a spin-off from common training, so they are better placed to assess their clients and support or refer appropriately.
- It maximises the respective strengths of different service providers.
- It supports the development of quality standards in assessment.
- It generates more effective transitions and referrals for clients
- Ultimately it helps organisations respond more effectively to client needs, enhance the client experience and deliver more sustainable outcomes for more clients.
Key Principles of a Common Assessment Framework
Effective Partnership Working
Partnership working is crucial to effective assessment and support for clients. A number of fundamental principles serve to reinforce the features of effective partnership working. The Subgroup's consultations resulted in the articulation of a number of key principles in the Workforce Plus context.
- Interdependence/complementarity - each partner has to recognise the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The sharing of objectives, ultimately to make a difference to clients, demands that effort to overcome barriers is exercised.
- High quality communication and openness - each partner requires to make robust attempts to be fully aware of respective roles and remits of relevant stakeholders, to develop open and respectful working relationships and to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients
- Maximising impact - the aim of providers working in partnership is to acknowledge shared objectives and to complement each other in producing positive and sustainable outcomes for clients
- Accountability - partnership working can become a measured quality indicator in its own right. This would need to be built into both self evaluation and contracting regimes.
- Clarity - of roles and responsibilities as well as identified areas of expertise.
- Identifying clientneeds - should be shared as a key aim.
- Confidencein their partners - this requires clear lines of communication, with agreed protocols and procedures, including:
- common procedures for documentation.
- an agreed staged model of intervention (each partner knowing their appropriate role, relative to others), with key working and follow through activity.
These require a degree of adaptable and flexible practice with the client at the centre of delivery, and a sharedprocess to identify needs, monitor and review progression.
These principles support and augment the existing principles of the needs led model.