Review of Care Assessment and Resources Allocation
Argyll and Bute Council · 16 June 2026
Back to Argyll and Bute HSCP Audit and Risk Committee — 16 June 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
1 Audit and Risk Committee Date of Meeting: 16 June 2026 Title of Report: Review of Care Assessment and Resource Allocation Presented by: Paul Macaskill, Chief Internal Auditor The Committee is asked to: ▪ Review and endorse the Internal Audit report on Care Assessment and Resource Allocation 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 An audit report focused on Care Assessment and Resource Allocation is being reported to the Audit and Risk Committee (the Committee). 1.2 Internal Audit provides a level of assurance upon completion of audit work. A definition for each assurance level is documented in each audit report. The table below provides a summary of the audit conclusions and the full report is included as an appendix to this report. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1 The committee is asked to consider, discuss and approve the contents of the attached report. 3. DETAIL OF REPORT 3.1 The scope of the audit was to assess whether there are policies and procedures in place for the assessment and allocation for resources for adult care packages. as outlined in the Terms of Reference agreed with the Head of Adults, Hospital & Community Services on 12 December 2025. 3.2 Three control objectives were assessed during the audit, these were: Control Objective CO1 Care Assessment policies and procedures are in place. No of Actions Audit Name Assurance High Medium Low VFM Care Assessment and Resource Allocation Limited 3 0 0 0
Page 2
2 Control Objective CO2 Policies and procedures are being applied consistently across all the Council areas. CO3 Resources are allocated in accordance with policies and procedures and reviewed on a regular basis. 3.3 Our overall audit opinion for this audit is that we can take a limited level of assurance. This means that internal control, governance and the management of risk are displaying a general trend of unacceptable residual risk above an acceptable level and placing system objectives are at risk. Weakness must be addressed with a reasonable timescale with management allocating appropriate resources to the issues raised. The report highlights the following strengths and areas for improvement: Strengths • A Resource Allocation framework is in place based on a prioritisation of needs with supporting procedure documentation. Workforce planning responsibilities are well embedded within the Integration Scheme and committee Terms of Reference. • We were provided with a staff Induction policy: Social Work Team Manager. This is dated September 2024. This induction covers both the requirement to complete the Council’s corporate induction process and the service specific induction process”. This document focusses very much on high level Council information and HSCP information. • A suite of procedures is available on Eclipse, the HSCP client management system, this includes guides for Eclipse and details of responsibilities at various access levels and tasks within Eclipse. The documents specifically relate to the management of client cases on Eclipse and do not outline the process for the assessment and allocation of resources or case management. • A Terms of reference for the Area Resource Group was reviewed. It also features a draft process map for Priority 1 and Priority 2 cases. The purpose of this document is to describe the role, function and remit of the Area Resources Group. Areas for Improvement • There are various documents in circulation, however, there is not an up-to-date document that outlines the whole process from referral to resource allocation and review of case. • The lack of a comprehensive procedural documents made it challenging to assess whether procedures are being applied consistently in each of the Council areas and in line with agreed procedures. There is broad agreement across all areas on what the process is, however, these have been developed within the areas with slight differences. • There are inconsistencies in practice between Social Work and NHS staff within the HSCP in respect of the care and assessment
Page 3
3 processes, this includes suggested inefficiencies in practice. In addition, there are inconsistencies in practice where clients are transferring from one Local Authority into Argyll & Bute. • The lack of comprehensive procedures and induction of new staff has led to new staff members, including at management level placing reliance of longer serving members of staff advising of processes or adapting best practice from the Local Authority they had previously worked for or developing their own area process maps. • There are inconsistencies across the Council areas in terms of the level of reviews that are being undertaken due to staffing shortages or the high number of referrals being received, resulting in reviews not being undertaken unless there was a change requested to the package. 4. RELEVANT DATA AND INDICATORS - NONE 5. CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 5.1 Internal audit reports include agreed actions to strengthen internal controls. 6. GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS 6.1 Financial Impact - None 6.2 Staff Governance - None 6.3 Clinical and Care Governance - None 7. PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY - NONE 8. EQUALITY & DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS – NONE 9. GENERAL DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES COMPLIANCE 9.1 This report does not raise any GDPR issues however consideration of GDPR will feature in audits where appropriate. 10. RISK ASSESSMENT 10.1 The audit planning approach is a risk based one and individual audit reports provide an overall assessment on the management of risk. 11. PUBLIC & USER INVOLVEMENT & ENGAGEMENT - NONE 12. CONCLUSIONS 12.1 Our overall audit opinion for this audit is that we can take a limited level of assurance. This means that internal control, governance and the management of risk are displaying a general trend of unacceptable residual risk above an acceptable level and placing system objectives are at risk. Weakness must be addressed with a reasonable timescale with management allocating appropriate resources to the issues raised.
Page 4
4 13. DIRECTIONS Directions required to Council, NHS Board or both. Directions to: tick No Directions required x Argyll & Bute Council NHS Highland Health Board Argyll & Bute Council and NHS Highland Health Board 14. PREVIOUS REVIEW OF THE REPORT Meeting Title of report Date Output (if relevant) n/a n/a n/a n/a REPORT AUTHOR AND CONTACT Author Name: Paul Macaskill Email: paul.macaskill@argyll-bute.gov.uk