Conducting a social worker unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) assessment 003-12030010

Item

Description

1

Who assesses eligibility for UTLAH independent status for customers 18 year and older?

O18 is a small team of experienced Service Officers operating in a virtual network, who undertake UTLAH assessments for customers 18 years and older. They are not social workers and are not part of the Social Work Services Branch. Social work expertise, in the form of case consultation, has supported the O18 team for several years.

2

How do O18 Service Officers receive UTLAH assessment work?

The majority of O18 work comes via workload manager (WLM). O18 Service Officers do not 'own' assessments. A Service Officer assigned the work item takes action to progress an assessment, taking this as far as possible, before returning the work item back to the WLM pool, until the next piece of information is received or the work item is due. At that time, a different O18 Service Officer may be assigned the work item/assessment. For this reason, contacting the last Service Officer who was assigned the work item is not helpful, because they may no longer have the assessment.

3

What does the O18 UTLAH team need to complete an assessment?

To adequately assess eligibility for UTLAH independent status, for a customer 18 years or older, the Service Officer needs a statement from the young person (a scanned SY015 or online claim question set) and a statement from parents (SY016). One SY016 from each parent is required if the parents are separated and have had contact with the young person in the last 2 years. If the young person reports there is 'no parental concern', or if information provided via the parent statement contradicts what is on the young person's statement, an SY017 (third party statement) can be requested by O18.

A third party statement is not a mandatory requirement for an 18 years or older UTLAH assessment and the discretion to request a SY017 rests with the O18 Service Officer.

Where a young person does not provide consent for parents to be contacted on the grounds of serious risk, the case is referred to an O18 support social worker for escalation to an O18 Social Work Support Manager.

When escalating these cases, use the O18 UTLAH escalation template.

4

What to O18 document and where?

UTLAH progress DOCs are created on the customer record in the Document list (DL) and/or Secure Notes. It is important to check both Secure Notes and DL. Progress DOCs are regularly annotated and contain information about what is still required to finalise the assessment.

5

Do O18 Service Officers undertake phone interviews or is their work only statement/file assessment based?

O18 Service Officers can undertake phone interviews with the young person, parents and/or third party, however this is not mandatory. It is possible for 18 years or older UTLAH assessments to be completed without any phone contact, if sufficient information is available to inform a quality decision.

6

Can I contact an O18 Service Officer directly?

As O18 Service Officers do not 'own' assessments, and a number of Service Officers may be involved in completing an assessment, O18 Service Officers are not to be contacted directly. Customers will not be advantaged by doing so. The correct procedure for contacting the O18 team is to send an O18 UTLAH CALLDOC Enquiry Fast Note, noting where any additional information is located (e.g. SWIS case notes). The O18 Service Officer assigned the work item can consult with an O18 support social worker to access the information.

7

What if the customer has additional information to provide?

If a customer has provided additional information, document the information/evidence in the O18 UTLAH CALLDOC Enquiry Fast Note, which will map to O18.

Note: any sensitive information should be confined to SWIS.

8

What if an 18 years or older UTLAH assessment has been rejected and the young person queries or disagrees with the decision, or would like additional information considered?

Make sure you are familiar with Request for an explanation or application for a formal review.

If the UTLAH assessment was completed and rejected by an O18 Service Officer, read the O18 progress DOC and advise the customer the reason UTLAH status was rejected. If the customer has further or third party information and would like the decision reassessed, offer to connect them with a suitably skilled officer in the O18 team and undertake a warm transfer. The correct phone number can be found in Office Locator. Search for 'O18'. If the young person declines to be transferred or the line is busy, record the new information in SWIS case notes and send an urgent O18 UTLAH ACTDOC Enquiry Fast Note to O18, noting where the information is located.

If the young person is not satisfied after discussing the decision with you and requests an explanation of decision or formal Review, run the Internal Review/Explanation script.

9

When should I use the O18 team warm transfer number?

If a customer, parent or third party contacts in response to an O18 request for information, or a customer would like an adverse decision explained by a suitably skilled officer, warm transfer the person to the O18 team. The correct phone number can be found in Office Locator, search for 'O18'. Note: this number is for internal use only. If this line is busy or rings out, use the relevant O18 Fast Note to notify the team.

Warm handoff via the O18 warm transfer number should also be considered in instances where the young person is having difficulty, or has concerns about, getting a SY016 completed by a parent.

10

Can social workers undertake an 18 years or older UTLAH assessment?

The agreed process is for 18 years and older UTLAH assessments to be undertaken by O18 Service Officers. If extenuating circumstances exist and you believe a local assessment is required due to the vulnerability of the young person, approval from a Social Work Support Manager (SWSM) is required. A social worker who intends to undertake an 18 years or older UTLAH assessment should:

• conduct a thorough file review to ensure an assessment by the O18 team is not already in progress. Check for a UTLAH progress DOC, the Activity List (AL) screen, Secure Notes etc.
• consult and seek approval from your SWSM
• complete any SY UTLAH statement work items, to make sure these activities do not map to O18
• write a UTLAH Social Work Report in SWIS and adhere to UTLAH quality decision making (QDM) standards
• seek approval to finalise the assessment with no parent contact, if the young person has indicated contact with parents may put them at serious risk. Provide a completed 'Over 18 escalation template' to an O18 support SWSM

Where the customer:

• has a new claim in process/on hold, use the UTLAH grant/reject Fast Note relevant to the payment applied for, to advise the correct processing team of the UTLAH outcome. Note: do not send completed assessments to O18 for coding
• is already in receipt of a payment, use your local process to have the Independence (NIH) screen coded and any other required updates made

11

Can I request an urgent/priority UTLAH assessment for a customer 18 years or older?

A young person 18 years or older may be considered for a priority UTLAH assessment if they do not already receive the dependent rate of an income support payment and meet an additional vulnerability criteria outlined in Lodgement of UTLAH statements for YA and TAP. If they meet priority assessment criteria, send a request to O18 using the urgent O18 UTLAH ACTDOC Enquiry Fast Note.

If a customer is already in receipt of an income support payment, at the dependent rate, and therefore does not qualify for a priority O18 UTLAH assessment, consider whether a recommendation for the away from home rate is applicable and use local processes to have this actioned, while the UTLAH assessment is in progress.