Local Government Association

This theme is designed to help councils understand more about their whole population rather than just the people who contact ASC for information and advice or care and support.

This theme focuses specifically on your online directory, which we define as “an online directory of local resources and services relevant to adults who may need care and support and unpaid carers who may need support. This forms part of the information base but is unlikely to be the whole of it”.

The information base can be understood as comprising two elements: general information and local information.

Making It Real is a set of co-produced statements that describe what good care and support looks like. They are aligned to the Care Act and built into the CQC Single Assessment Framework. Given this, councils are advised to consider the ‘We’ statements carefully in developing their information and advice service.

This section includes the Information and Advice Maturity Assessment (IAMA) tool to assess your currentinformation and advice service. There is guidance on how to complete the tool and an explanation of the ten themes that make up the assessment.

This section outlines what information and advice for adult social care is and the need to consider a council’s wider information and advice offer, statutory responsibilities of councils with adult social services responsibilities, and Making It Real ‘I’ and ‘We’ statements about information and advice.

Adult social care information and advice are essential and getting them right means that people are more likely to be able to make informed choices and access the right support at the right time and place. This can make a big difference for someone and ultimately can improve their health and wellbeing. It also helps councils to manage and prioritise their assessment processes and resources.

The rating your council is given will receive a lot of attention. Developing and delivering your response is an important part of the process.