3.4.1 Placements and Procurement Process |
RELATED CHAPTERS
Contents
- Introduction
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Arranging a Placement
- Processing Invoices and Payments
- Process and Performance Management
- Process Maps
1. Introduction
| 1.1 | This document is the policy and procedure in relation to Children's Placements and Procurement and defines the roles and responsibilities. |
| 1.2 | The areas of Children's Social Care which this procedure covers are:
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2. Roles and Responsibilities
The following table outlines the broad roles and responsibilities of each level of Staff in the process:
| Name of Role | Responsibilities |
Social Worker |
Assessment of needs and completion of PIR, which must be e-mailed to the Placement and Procurement Service work tray. |
| Team Manager | Supervision of Social Worker to ensure compliance to the above responsibilities. Management of budgets. Authorise CLA request in ICS. |
| Care Planning Panel | All new cases must be presented at CPP for consideration and decision to accommodate. |
| Service Manager | Authorising of PPF and non PPF searches and all placements and extra financial costs. Monitoring overall spend. |
| Placements and Procurement Service | Obtaining authorisation to search for placement from Service Manager. Identifying appropriate placements to meet child's needs. Monitoring competence of providers. Entering details of placements into PIR and costs into ContrOCC. |
| Business Process Team | Data entry and validation for all commitments. Ensuring commitments are authorised including cost - volume pricing threshold for PPF providers. Creating new providers on ICS. Monitoring commitments for Joint Funding expenditure. Arranging and administering Supervised Contact arrangements. |
| Finance Process Team | Making payments. Verifying and matching payments authorised by Service Manager with the authorised commitments on ContrOCC. Requesting set-up of new providers and suppliers in Oracle. |
| 2.1 | The forms which support this process are as follows:
|
| 2.2 | The following process map provides a quick overview for reference: |
| 2.3 | The following process map provides a quick overview for reference: |
This section defines the placement process in relation to the following:
- Authorisation
- Placement
- The PIR forms are required to facilitate the process. Social Workers must ensure these are completed as defined at different stages in the process.
- Children's Placements including Residential, Secure Accommodation, LBL Foster Placements, IFA Foster Placements and Semi-Independence accommodation all follow the same process.
- Adoption and Placements with Connected Persons have a slight variation to the process, see Section3.6, Ending a Placement below.
- Emergency placements effected by the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) out of hours will need to be reassessed by daytime staff by following this process, starting from when the referral information is received from EDT on the morning of the next working day. It is recognised the child will already be in a placement. The Social Worker must book the case on to the next available CPP.
3.1 Definitions of Child needing to Placed
There are two key definitions as follows:
| Definition | Description |
| Child needing to be placed |
|
| Variations |
|
3.2 Obtaining Authorisation to Seek
This section defines the process for obtaining authority to seek a placement from the Service Manager once the Social Worker and Team Manager have reached agreement on the assessed needs of the child and in line with the decisions from the CPP.
Click here to view Obtaining Authorisation to Seek.
3.3 Purchasing a Placement (including Contact with Service users/Providers)
This section describes the process for finding a suitable placement.
Click here to view Purchasing a Placement (including Contact with Service users/Providers).
3.4 Obtaining Authorisation to Place
This section describes the process for obtaining authority from the Service Manager to proceed with the placement.
Click here to view Obtaining Authorisation to Place.
3.5 Recording Process for Placed with Parents under Regulations, Placements with Connected Persons and/or Adoption Placements
3.6 Ending a Placement
This section defines the process for ending a placement.
Click here to view Ending a Placement.
4. Processing Invoices and Payments
This section deals with the financial procedures and regulations regarding the invoice and payment process. In addition, it will also clearly define the financial roles and responsibilities of Staff within Children's Social Care Division.
All invoices will be received electronically by the Finance Process Team.
4.1 VAT for Residential Care
All Residential Care Homes that directly provide accommodation for Children in Need and Children Looked cannot charge for VAT.
This is because since 2002 the provision of welfare services by private and voluntary bodies is exempt from VAT, so there should be no VAT addition on invoices from providers of these services.
Therefore, any invoice received from a Residential Care provider that includes VAT must not be paid. The care provider must be advised that the service is exempt from VAT and asked to invoice correctly in the future. The invoice should be returned to the provider using the standard letter explaining the VAT regulations.
4.2 Recording and Coding of Invoices
All invoices must be recorded on receipt by Finance Process Team. The invoice should then be certified against the authorised amount held on ICS .
If the invoiced amount does not reconcile to the authorised amount the discrepancies must be fully investigated and resolved. The following checks should then be undertaken:-
- Check the commitment against the contract, if the commitment has been incorrectly entered amend ICS
- Check invoice details against contract, if the invoice is incorrect, contact the provider.
If the discrepancies are not immediately resolvable for an invoice, contact the Placements and Procurement Service and alert the relevant Service Manager.
If the invoice value matches to the authorised amount held on ICS, the Finance Process Team are required to undertake the following tasks prior to payment:-
- Check the calculations are correct
- Ensure that the period charged is correct and the previous periods are not duplicated
- Check for multiple payments (different providers for the same period)
Once all the checks have been completed and reconciled the invoice can then be processed through ContrOCC, or in the case of invoices being paid directly into the Oracle financial system, passed to the relevant Service Manager for authorisation.
4.3 Payment and Reconciling Process
Click here to view Payment and Reconciling Flowchart.
4.4 Cost-Volume Discounting
From April 1st 2007, the discounted fee will be based on actual expenditure worth of business per year by the Council.
5. Process and Performance Management
| 5.1 | This section describes how the process is managed and performance measured. |
| 5.2 | All Staff are required to refer to the ICS user guide, which provides the necessary advice on how ICS can be used to review performance. |
| 5.3 | The table below sets out the requirements, actions, who is responsible and reports required to manage performance. |
Click here to view Process and Performance Management Table.
6. Process Maps
Click here to view Process Map - Part 1.
Click here to view Process Map - Part 2.
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