Monitoring Enablement

Monitoring is a vital role in enablement and crucial in ensuring that:

1. The Enablement Plan is working as intended;
2. Progress is being made towards outcomes;
3. Issues and risks to the plan are identified at an early stage; and
4. The benefit of any equipment or Technology Enabled Care is being maximised.

It is your responsibility as the allocated social care practitioner at the enablement service to monitor progress of the enablement service being provided.  To do this you should arrange to work closely with:

1. The enablement support worker/s (agreeing how they will provide you with progress updates and any concerns they have);
2. Any Occupational Therapists involved in providing equipment as part of enablement;
3. The Technology Enabled Care service where Technology Enabled Care has been provided as part of enablement; and
4. The person and any carer (through telephone contact at agreed times and frequency).

The enablement support worker has a crucial role in ensuring monitoring is effective. To this end you must make sure that each individual worker understands :

1. The importance of monitoring;
2. The monitoring arrangements that have been agreed;
3. When and how to provide scheduled updates;
4. When and how to provide unscheduled updates;
5. How to record monitoring activity;
6. How to manage non-complex issues with the plan;
7. How to request and make changes to the Enablement Plan;
8. When and how to request a review of enablement;
9. How to report a concern about any other Care and Support service being provided to the person; and
10. How to report a safeguarding concern.

Effective enablement often involves an element of joint working with:

1. Occupational Therapy services;
2. Technology Enabled Care;
3. Social Work;
4. Health providers.

Where a range of people are involved in enablement this is known as an MDT (multi-disciplinary team). Everyone involved in the MDT must work together to maximise the effectiveness of enablement and achieve better outcomes for the person.

Each member of the multidisciplinary team must understand:

1. The outcomes in the Enablement Plan;
2. The strengths and abilities of the person;
3. Who else is involved in enablement, the role that they have and the actions they intend to take during enablement;
4. The monitoring arrangements and their role in this;
5. How the plan is progressing over time, the progress made and any issues that arise.

For the purpose of monitoring each member of the MDT must:

1. Provide information as per agreed monitoring arrangements;
2. Provide unscheduled information to the enablement service as and when it is appropriate to do so (for example if they are concerned about any aspect of the plan).

The MDT can provide this information virtually or through a physical meeting. If the latter takes place you should:

1. Notify the person and any carer that the MDT is taking place, why it is taking place and obtain their views to share at the MDT;
2. Consider the benefit and appropriateness of supporting the person or a carer to attend the MDT meeting;
3. Wherever possible, support the person or a carer to be involved in the MDT when they request this (for example in person, on the telephone or via a medium such as Skype).

When monitoring enablement you will receive information from a range of sources including:

1. The enablement support worker;
2. The person or carer;
3. Others involved in enablement (for example an occupational therapist or Technology Enabled Care); and
4. Anyone else involved with the person for another purpose (for example a social worker or a health professional).

It is important that all information gathered through monitoring is recorded in a timely way and acted upon when:

1. Changes to monitoring may be required;
2. Changes may be needed to the Enablement Plan ( for example in response to progress made or a fluctuation in need); or
3. A review of the plan is required.