Questionnaire. Financial Safeguarding, Assessment and Advice Services for Adults

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1 Page Appendix 1 of 5 B Questionnaire Financial Safeguarding, Assessment and Advice Services for Adults Along with other local authorities across the country, West Sussex County Council is facing severe financial challenges. This means the services we provide have to be more efficient and cost effective and we are looking at a range of options to help us do this. One of the ways we do this is to contract with a provider to deliver services on our behalf. We call this outsourcing. The Council already has a contract with Capita to run some of our office services. These include finance, administration, Human Resources and IT. We are now thinking about outsourcing more office services to Capita under the same contract. These are: The Financial Adults Safeguarding Team and; The Welfare Benefit Advice Team. The Financial Adult Safeguarding Team looks after the money and property of vulnerable adults in West Sussex who cannot manage their own finances and who have no one else to do it for them. The Welfare Benefit Advice team visit people receiving care services from West Sussex to make sure they are claiming all the benefits they are entitled to and also calculate how much they should pay towards their care costs. The County Council intends to make a decision in March 2014 on whether it will outsource these services. We would like to know your thoughts on this proposal to help us make this decision. Please tell us your views using the following questionnaire. Q1 In which district or borough do you live? Horsham MidSussex Crawley Chichester Adur and Worthing Arun Q2. Are you:(please tick all that apply to you): A Customer A carer Completing this questionnaire on behalf of someone else A West Sussex Resident A West Sussex Business owner/manager A West Sussex County Council employee

2 Page 2 of 5 A supplier to West Sussex County Council A Voluntary or Community sector worker If you work for a voluntary organisation or are a service supplier please tell us what voluntary organisation /supplier you work for? Q3 Have you previously used or been in contact with either service, if yes, Please tick those which apply. If no, please go to Question 6. Financial Assessment and Welfare Benefit Advice service Financial Adult Safeguarding service Q4 What did you like about the service? Please tick those which apply: Face to face involvement Ease of access Speed of service Responsiveness to queries and issues Simplicity and availability of information Advice and guidance Q5 What didn t you like about the service? Please tick those which apply: A lack of face to face involvement Ease of access Speed of service Responsiveness to queries and issues Simplicity and availability of information Advice and guidance

3 Page 3 of 5 Q6 How would you feel if the service was run by someone other than West Sussex County Council (outsourcing)? Please select the option which most closely matches your opinion of the following statement: I am not worried about who runs the service. Strongly disagree Disagree Agree Strongly agree Don t know Q7 Please tell us about any views or concerns you have if the County Council were to outsource these services? Please use the free text box below.

4 Page 4 of 5 Monitoring Section We want to make sure everyone is treated fairly and equally. To enable us to check that what we are providing is fair and effective, we would be grateful if would answer the questions below. You do not have to provide the information requested but it would help us if you did. What is your age group? What is your ethnic group? White British Mixed Asian Gypsy/Irish Traveller White other Black Chinese Other Do you consider yourself to have a disability or long-term illness? Yes No Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Your views are important and we will be sharing our findings with you. If you need this questionnaire in another format such as Easy Read, large print, audio CD, in a different language or would like further information please us on: [email protected] Or contact: Simon Hopkins, telephone: Please return your completed questionnaire to: Have Your Say, West Sussex County Council using the Prepaid Envelope.

5 Page 5 of 5 Focus Group Work Shop Sessions Workshop questions Q1. What has your, or someone you know, experience been of the Welfare Benefits Advice Service or the Financial Adult Safeguarding Service? Q2. The majority of the Welfare Benefits Advice service collection of information is carried out by face to face interactions. Do you think it would be helpful if some or more of this service was available to customers online? Q3. Do you think there is enough information available so you know what outsourcing these services actually means? Q4. How would you feel if these services were run by someone other than West Sussex County Council? Would you have concerns if the County Council were to outsource these services? Q5. Is there anything which the County Council could do to help you feel confident about these services being run by someone else? Questions to use if participants attending the workshop have been in direct receipt of these services. Q6. What was positive about your experience of these services? Q7. What lessons should be learned from your experiences?