Found someone with a Joint Funding Tool !

The FoI information continues to come in and I’ve had the first response with an agreed Joint Funding Tool.

They use the ‘Devon Tool’ which is a spreadsheet and averages percentages based upon CHC Domain Levels.

And, whilst having a joint tool with the ICB will save a LOT of time / expense the problem with the ‘Devon Tool’ is that it doesn’t take take the time / tasks into account when working out a percentage.

Say a person has 12hrs 2:1 in order to manage their high behavioural needs due to a high cognitive impairment with high communication needs but has no other needs the Devon Tool says 55% for health.

And putting aside this ought to be suggesting a Primary Health Need …

If the person has low skin needs it drops to 45% health – i.e 2.5 hrs for skin management.

Add is some medication prompts and it falls to 30% so it’s assuming more than 3.5 hrs for prompting someone to take their medication.

Essentially a Low in Medication (all LA) is not equivalent to a high in Behaviour (all ICB) but the Devon Tool thinks they are.

This is why I argued that my previously employer ought not to use the Devon Tool since it has an inherent ICB bias.

It also has an age bias since younger person will get a far higher health split than a person with identical cognitive / behavioural and communication needs (plus some age related mobility / skin).

If you’re using the Devon Tool – give it a go !

Basically it’s not consistent for all groups of service users and it’s not a fair reflection of someone’s actual needs and that’s what led me to design and build JFunder since fairness and equality are fundamental pats of being a Social Worker.