Greater Manchester Authority

200 Best Interests Assessments

In September 2016, this Metropolitan Borough Council had a large incoming referral rate of nearly 200 BIA assessments per month. After engaging with Xyla Health and social care (formerly ICS Assessment Services), our flexible team of Best Interest Assessors dealt with the backlog of over 200 referrals in a compliant, efficient and cost-effective manner. 

The flexibility of the arrangement has allowed the Council to respond to peaks in demand without having to commit to employing new members of staff. The project has also allowed the Council to utilise Xyla Health and social care’s extensive network of experienced Best Interests Assessors. 

Key Achievements: 

  • Conducted 200 Best Interests Assessments of clients to date 
  • 99% of all assessments were accepted on first submission to the Council 
  • Average turnaround per assessment completed in 12.5 working days 
  • 16 cases screened and no longer require assessment 
  • Utilised Council’s standard templates for consistency 
  • Direct, secure upload to Council management system using Egress 
  • A cohort of locally-based Best Interests Assessors used to complete the assessments 

Our Approach: 

The Council’s Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) team had engaged directly with Xyla Health and social care as a trusted provider, with a view to developing an on-going relationship to support their in-house function. We delivered a fully managed, end-to-end process supporting the Council to: 

  • Source experienced assessors 
  • Ensure compliance standards are being met 
  • Allocate assessments via our in-house Admin Team 
  • Provide Quality Assurance from our in-house DoLS Leads, ensuring all documentation meets the Council’s standards 
  • Ensure files were securely handled via direct data transfer through Egress or the Council’s own system. 

With service users based in around 40 care homes across the region, we utilised our network of over 145 Best Interests Assessors within a 45-minute drive of the Council area to eliminate the entire backlog in just 10 weeks.