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THE SINGLE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
(SAP) was introduced in the National Service Framework for Older
People (2001), Standard
2: person centred care. This standard aims to ensure that the
NHS and social care services treat older people as individuals and
enable them to make choices about their own care.
Person centred approaches are ways of commissioning, providing and
organising services rooted in listening to what people want, to
help them live in their communities as they choose. These approaches
work to use resources flexibly, designed around what is important
to an individual from their own perspective and work to remove any
cultural and organisational barriers. People are not simply placed
in pre-existing services and expected to adjust, rather the service
strives to adjust to the person.
The requirement to develop a Single Assessment Process was
based on the recognition that many older people have wide-ranging
welfare needs and that agencies need to work together so that assessment
and subsequent care planning are effective and coordinated. Care
is holistic and centres on the whole person; the involvement of
service users is fundamental to the implementation of this strategy.
SAP aims to make sure older people's
needs are assessed thoroughly and accurately, but without procedures
being needlessly duplicated by different agencies, and that information
is shared appropriately between health and social care agencies.
The Single
Assessment Process is increasingly being used as a framework for delivering
services to other adults requiring care, not just older people. Government
policy documents are promoting SAP as a model for a national Common
Assessment Framework(CAF) and to deliver the benefits of a holistic
needs assessment for all adults with long term conditions - more
information on SAP, CAF and policy developments.
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NATIONAL SAP
RESOURCE
THE
CENTRE FOR POLICY ON AGEING has been commissioned by the Department
of Health to create and host an online resource for health and social
care professionals implementing SAP. The resource, which is freely
accessible, holds a wealth of material to assist multi agency working
including an interactive glossary of terms and a discussion forum.
The
aim is to provide access to information, in all its various forms,
that can be shared across localities, organisations and individuals
to support work around SAP, share good practice and reduce duplication
of effort.
The
resource is continually updated to reflect new issues and practice.
It includes a special section on e-SAP and details of the NHS Connecting
for Health and the Electronic Social Care Records Implementation
Board project. The project takes account of plans to extend SAP
into a Common Assessment Framework for adults, requiring the NHS
and Local Authorities to be able to support integrated multi agency
working across all client groups. Reports from the Do Once and Share
(DOAS) SAP national project are also available on the resource.
Do Once and Share is a programme to engage clinicians and the public
with an interest in a particular area (such as the Single Assessment
Process) in activity required for the successful implementation
and explanation of NHS Connecting for Health technologies and to
minimise unknowing and unnecessary duplication of effort.
If you have materials (documents,
strategies, protocols) or examples of successful practice to share,
please contact Gillian Crosby, Project Manager: (gcrosby@cpa.org.uk)
Tel: 020 7553 6500.
The resource, which is updated on a weekly basis, consists
of:
- search
facility
(enter specific terms
to search materials, documents and organisations)
- learning and development
materials
(listings organised by
type/format and subject)
- SAP websites
(selection of external websites and a facility to search them)
- localities, 'good practice' and
innovation
(examples of what works, progress made, problems met, successful
solutions)
- organisations
(offering training services, sources of practical publications,
e-learning, government agencies, suppliers of SAP related services,
relevant current research)
- glossary
(an interactive glossary of terms from health and social care,incorporating
long term conditions and information technology)
- discussion forum
(the discussion forum provides an opportunity for SAP professionals
to exchange views and information)
The coverage of materials does not pretend to be, nor could
it be, entirely comprehensive. The intention is that the resource
should be continually developed as it is used and that it remains
interactive. This approach helps the information contained within
it to remain timely and therefore relevant.
Where possible we make the materials accessible. We provide web links
and downloadable documents, where people are happy for us to do this,
or we give full contact details for you to source a piece of information.
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