4.1.7 Providers: No Reply In and Out of Hours

1. Providers No Reply during Office Hours – Monday to Friday 9:00-17:00

NB: For bank holidays the Out of hours No Reply and missing person procedure must be followed.

This procedure is to be followed if service users do not answer the door when the Care Worker arrives.

If holding a key for the property or if there is a key safe, gain admittance and check all rooms to see if the service user can be found.

If, on arrival at a service user’s property, access cannot be gained, the Care Worker must take the following steps to investigate the situation.

• look through the letterbox / windows;
• check at the back of the house;
• look for obvious signs that the service user may be in difficulty and try to get the service users’ attention;

• attempt to telephone the service user;
• check with neighbours, warden, known friends in the area etc to see if they know service user’s whereabouts.

If at any point the Care Worker sees anything arousing concern or suspicion, they should Immediately telephone the emergency services (999) and inform their manager(i.e. Care agency manager).

If the Care Worker is still unable to contact the service user, they should put a Slip through the letter box detailing that they had attended and the date and time of visit. They should then inform their Manager (ie care agency manager) immediately and wait at the property until told to go by their Manager (i.e. care agency manager).

Once the Care Agency Manager has been informed of the No Reply by the Care Worker, the Manager should check whether there has been any known notification that the service user will not be at home – bearing in mind that such notification may have come to the service provider’s own office or to the service user’s social worker or Community Duty Team (Adult Social Care).

If there has been no notification, Care Agency Manager should follow up any possibilities which may lead to locating the service user. This would include contacting:

• the service users, relatives, next of kin etc;
• any person or organisation known to hold a key to the service user’s home;
• local hospitals;
• GP;
• day centres.

If the person is in receipt of Careline, 24 please telephone 0207 525 2999 – as they may be able to provide information about any recent  alarm activations and or admission to hospital

The Care Agency Manager should also make continuing efforts to contact the service user on the phone. The Care Worker should be kept always informed of progress.

The service provider must ensure that the above process is completed within one hour of being informed of the no reply by the Care Worker.

If, after one hour, the whereabouts of the service user remains unknown, the Care Agency Manager should inform Community Duty Service on Tel:  0207 926 5555 by phone, (selecting option 2 for service users in receipt of a service on the choice menu) and send confirmation through to adult social care via the online agency form – ‘ASC agency worker form’ on Lambeth Council’s Adult Social Care webpage and attach the no reply action sheet (see Appendix 1).

From this point responsibility for dealing with the situation will be passed to Lambeth Adult Social Care who will make any decision to request that the Police undertake a welfare visit and consider gaining access to the service user’s property.

If the person isn’t located ASC and the police will consider filing a Missing Person report (see Appendix 2 –Missing Person Guidance).

ASC will need to maintain contact with the persons next of kin to let them know what actions are being taken and to update them once the outcome is known.

1.1 Repeat no reply situations (for ASC)

Where people are regularly not in attendance at the time of their care calls, we will consider the following guidance.

Where a person has capacity no reply letter will be posted by hand through their letter box (Appendix 3), explaining the action we will undertake in the event of a no reply, including the possibility of the police undertaking a welfare visit and making a decision to force entry into the property.

The person’s care and support needs should be reviewed, as they may not need the level of service being provided, or the service times adjusted.

Where there are concerns about the person’s mental capacity, or the person has been confirmed to lack capacity in relation to their care and support needs or safety issues, ASC will make a decision about escalating the above actions.

In these instances, there should be consideration of the use of assistive technology to support the safety of the person, such as GPS trackers and key safes to enable easy access to emergency services and ASC.

2. Providers No Reply – Out of Hours

2.1 On receipt of a no reply

Complete the No Reply Action Sheet (see Appendix 1).

Should this result in a positive response and the service user is located then no further action will be necessary.

However, should this result in a negative response, i.e., the service user’s whereabouts cannot be located further action is required.

For clients where there is a Key safe at the property this should be used to gain access. If the clints is safe and well no further action is required

If the client needs urgent medical assistance, please phone 999.

If you have gained access to the property and have checked all the rooms and there is no sign of the client then you should report this to EDT 0207 926 5555.

Where there are high risk factors associated with person who has not been located for example if they have dementia and are prone to wandering this should also be reported as missing to the Police.

If there is no Key safe in situ then please call EDT on 020 7926 5555 for further information on the client.

If no further information in available, no keys are available, access to the property has not been possible and the client has not been located the provider must report this matter to the Police and request a forced entry. Please obtain a CAD number from the Police.

In the event of  a forced entry via the Police, the following should be undertaken before this is done:

1. Please ensure that all checks have been done and key holders, if any, have been contacted (Appendix 1).
2. Ensure that the next of kin (NOK) is contacted and inform them of the decision you have taken that a break-in will be required.
3. Carer to remain on the premises during the forced entry.
4. CDT team to be contacted with the final outcome ON NEXT WORKING DAY 020 7926 5555 OPTION 2.

When you contact the police you will be expected to give them the following information

• Name, address and DOB of service user;
• Disability of the service user;
• Summary of information, which has been recorded on the No Reply Action Sheet;
• Reason why you are concerned and when you last saw the service user;
• Where the person usually goes.

The police have told us, when they receive a call of that nature, they will treat it like any other emergency.

2.2 Securing the service user’s property

The following information has been provided by the Community Safety Team and Inspector (Brixton Police Station) from Lambeth.

Housing Association Property – the police will contact the Housing Association to report the damage to the property.

Council Housing – the police will contact the relevant Housing office.

Private Accommodation – the police when they attend will make an assessment as to whether the service user is able to secure the property themselves and if they are, they will leave it up to them.

If they are unable to do so, they will authorise their POLICE contractor to board up the damaged area and the householder will be expected to pay for their own repairs.

Costs of repairs

Any costs of repairs or making good undertaken by the police as a result of forced entries are met either by the owner of the property or the landlord. The police will only meet the cost for the boarding.

2.2.1 Issue regarding cost of repairs

In instances where you are faced with issues relating to the service user being unable to pay for repairs, please report this to the Community Duty Team on 020 7926 5555 option 2..

A decision will be taken to ascertain whether Lambeth Adult Social Care can assist in any way.  Written details of the incident and the action taken, is to be included.

Appendix 1: No Reply Action Sheet – Care Agency to Submit

Click here to access Appendix 1: No Reply Action Sheet (downloads in Word)

Appendix 2: Missing Service Users Action Checklist

The following is a brief checklist of actions that staff need to take when a person who is receiving a service has gone missing staff to contact.

1. Please make the following checks:

• the service user’s relatives, next of kin etc;
• any person or organisation known to hold a key to the service user’s home;
• local hospitals;
• GP;
• day centres;
• check Mosaic and London Care Records for any hospital admissions.

Ensure that a discussion takes place with a Manager as to outcome of actions taken prior to contacting Police.

Risk assessing of a service user to consider if this is a pattern of regular behaviour or lives a chaotic lifestyle. To discuss with Manager as need to be clear what is being done especially if known to be frequently missing from their place of residence.  To record plan to be implemented and decision to escalate will be determined / guided by discussion with Manager.

2. Check whether person has been reported missing to the police.
3. If not and agreed with manager to report person missing to the police and obtain CAD number.
4. Escalate to Senior Management via email HOS and AD – providing breakdown as to actions already taken (including contacting Police and provide CAD number) and photograph of missing person (MP). Date from which person has been missing and number of days eg. Day 1 (if person had gone missing over the weekend alert the named Senior Manager whose is on call)
5. With each day that service user has been missing – update HOS and AD – if after 24 hours this is to be escalated to Director and Deputy Director Level detailing how long person has been missing e.g. Day 1– Day 2 etc
6. Contact involved agencies/Person’s Network i.e. Family, Neighbour, health professionals etc,
7. Contact EDT and alert to person being missing with a copy of their photograph
8. Request an incident report from the provider, following receipt of this, consideration as to whether a SG concern is to be raised if person was residing in a placement under DOLs.
9. Day 3 Teams Meeting with Team Manager/HOS/AD to discuss case and any other actions that may need to be considered or taken place and whether wider communication required via ADASS to other local authorities
10. Day 5 Senior Manager to send to Communications Team [email protected] to send round to other local authorities with a brief description of person including, age, ethnicity, height/build, where they were last seen and a photograph of the person where possible

Appendix 3: Letter for Service User – for ASC

Click here to access Appendix 3 Letter for Service User – for ASC (downloads in Word)