Considering the value of supporting information

Useful supporting information will help you understand an individual’s needs so you can make a determination about their entitlement to assistance.

You will not need additional supporting information for every application and the type of supporting information available will differ from client to client. This will depend on the individual’s condition, needs and circumstances.

You should not expect:

• to be able to get the same pieces of supporting information from every individual
• that the value of that information will be the same in every case

Additionally, it is not possible to be prescriptive about the minimum requirements for a piece of supporting information to be considered valuable, because it will depend on the specific circumstances.

You should consider the factors outlined in this section when deciding:

• how valuable a piece of supporting information is
• whether more information is needed to make a robust decision i.e. if the information you have is not valuable

Factors to consider

When deciding whether a piece of supporting information is valuable you should consider:

• who it’s from
• the period of time it relates to
• the content

When considering a piece of supporting information you should:

• Consider all the information you have within context.
• Use other decision-making tools if you are unsure how to interpret it, e.g. a case discussion

Who the information is from

You should consider if the source:

• knows the individual and understands the impact their condition or disability has on their life
• offers insight into the individual’s condition or disability as a result of their role in the individual’s life  
• is involved in the individual’s treatment or care regularly

You should be satisfied that the provider of information can be reasonably expected to have an insight into the individual’s life. There is no definitive list of the nature of the way in which someone providing supporting information should know the individual.

If they are providing supporting information it is reasonable to assume that they have the insight required to provide it, unless you have reason to think otherwise.

For example, it is reasonable to assume that a young person’s college tutor has a good level of understanding about the individual’s life. But if you know that the individual has been out of college for 18 months, you’re likely to view the information as less valuable. This is because the individual’s needs may have changed from when the teacher last saw the individual 18 months ago.

The reason why the supporting information in this example may be less valuable is because how regularly someone sees the individual may impact how valuable a piece of supporting information is. This does not mean that the source has to see the individual or the impacts of their condition at a given regularity to be considered valuable. Rather that you should consider whether it is more likely than not that the source of supporting information will be able to offer insights into the individual’s condition or disability based on how often they see the individual.

This will differ from case to case. It should also be considered in regards to whether the individual’s needs are likely to have changed in the time since the source saw them, or if their condition remains fairly consistent.

There may alternatively be details in the information itself which de-value the perspective of the person providing it. For example it may be clear that the person has simply observed from afar, rather than being directly involved in the individual’s life.

There are specific details required from people providing supporting information as a professional. You should use the guidance on types of professionals and the Gathering supporting information chapter to help you identify a professional.

The period of time the information relates to

How up-to-date a piece of supporting information needs to be in order to be considered valuable will differ from case to case.

This applies to both the confirmation from a professional and additional supporting information.

The key consideration is whether or not the information is relevant to the period the application relates to. That does not necessarily mean the information needs to be recent. However, you must be able to make a reasonable assumption that it is relevant to the circumstances existing at the time the application relates to.

The two main factors influencing how close in time the supporting information needs to be to the application are

• the nature of the individual’s disability or health condition
• the individual’s age.

Individuals who have a disability or condition which is likely to remain consistent in the way it impacts them may have supporting information which is still relevant after many years

Only if an individual’s condition is likely to have changed in a way that may impact their needs since the date of the supporting information might there be a reason to obtain more recent information. That may be especially the case for individuals who have become newly disabled following a significant illness or injury, such as having had a stroke or having a limb amputated following a major trauma. In these instances it’s probable that the individual’s needs in the year immediately after the event might change to a greater or lesser extent after that point.

The age of the individual is also relevant to how current the supporting information needs to be. For conditions which require careful management and strict adherence to treatment regimes, mental health conditions, diabetes or epilepsy for example, it’s likely that individual’s may need more support as young adults than they will a few years later. In which case, information from when an individual was 15 may be relevant to their needs at 18, but may be less valuable when they are 22.

For older individuals, it’s a reasonable assumption that once an individual has reached around retirement age, it’s unlikely that the impact a condition has on their needs will become any less. So while you might require more recent supporting information for a 27 year old individual who had a serious pelvis fracture at 20, it’s likely that the needs of an individual who had the same injury at 57 will be the same at 70.

When deciding whether dated information is still relevant, you should consider the individual’s current needs and decide whether it is more likely than not that their needs have changed since the date of their supporting information

It is the date of the supporting information that is being explored here, not the content of the supporting information.

You may conclude that that supporting information was dated from a time relevant to the application or review but the information it provides is inconsistent with other information you have gathered, In this case, the supporting information is relevant but there is an inconsistency.

You should also ensure that the supporting information supports the backwards and forwards test. Supporting information meets the backwards test if it relates to needs the individual has had for at least 13 weeks before the date of application and you can conclude that it is more likely than not that the individual has had the stated condition or needs for all days of those 13 weeks.

If you’re unsure if the information is current enough to help you, you should other decision making tools, such as medical guidance or requesting a case discussion.

The content of the supporting information

When thinking about value, consider if the information:

• includes additional detail not provided on the application or review form
• relates to the individual’s experience of their condition rather than general information about that condition  
• is broadly consistent with the information in the application or review form, or there is a reasonable explanation for any inconsistencies

Make sure you fully understand any specialist language or terminology used. This is so you can correctly interpret the information. If you need to check what something means, use other decision making tools, such as medical guidance or a case discussion.

Do not treat supporting information from abroad any differently. If you need to request translations, see accessibility guidance.

The supporting information provides additional information

You may conclude that a piece of supporting information is valuable if it contains additional details not provided in the application or review form.

You should not automatically disregard additional information that is relevant if it is inconsistent with other information. You should consider whether there is a reasonable explanation for the inconsistency. If there is no reasonable explanation, you should follow the guidance on inconsistencies below.

The supporting information relates to the individuals experience of their condition

Supporting information is valuable where it is an account of how the condition impacts the individual on a day-to-day basis or provides details on their needs.

Supporting information may offer lots of additional detail about the condition in general.

For example, information from a factsheet, a leaflet or a medical website. However, this is not valuable as it does not give you any insight into how that condition impacts the individual or their needs.

The same piece of information is valuable whether the source has seen what they are reporting for themselves or it is something they have been told.

Where supporting information indicates that what they are reporting is not something they have seen themselves but is something the individual has told them, you should not treat this information any differently.

Treating the information differently could disadvantage individuals who do not have contacts who regularly see their day-to-day needs.

You should continue to take a trust-based approach to this information, as always.

Medical professionals are unlikely to see the individual at any great length when they do see the individual. There are also some aspects of an individual’s care that it is unreasonable to expect certain professionals to see for themselves, such as night time toilet needs.

As a result, their insights on certain needs may only come from what the individual has told them.

Differences in describing levels of need

Some sources of supporting information will have a point of reference that impacts how they describe an individual’s needs. The way in which people they regularly come into contact with are impacted by their condition, the nature of the conditions the people they see often have, and the prognoses they are used to discussing will all impact their perspective. You should consider the source and the context when reviewing supporting information.

For example, a GP might describe an individual’s condition as ‘well-controlled’. They might choose that term because they know their condition has the potential to be very difficult to treat with medication and could routinely become very severe.

A condition being well controlled does not necessarily mean that the individual will not have any daily living or mobility needs. It may simply mean that the way they are impacted by their condition is consistent. The GP may use ‘well-controlled’ to indicate a range of circumstances, including that the individual:

• is prescribed treatment for their condition and consistently takes it as directed;
• has a condition which does not impact on them currently;
• has a condition which is stable and consistently impacts them in the same way

An alternative example is a social worker whose clients are mostly people with drug and alcohol addiction who are regularly in contact with the criminal justice system. They might describe a client who has significant depression but is not affected by substance misuse as capable of meeting their daily living needs. That may be the case when compared to the lives of their other clients, but it does not necessarily mean the client does not experience difficulty in looking after themselves.

It is important to remember that all subjective terms, such as mild, stable, well behaved, easily managed etc require a judgement to be made by the person using them. They should not be seen as definitive and the wider context in which they are made must be considered.

Related reading

• What is supporting information
• Principles of decision-making
• Our approach to supporting information
• supporting information operational guidance
• Types of professional
• other decision making tools
• accessibility guidance
• the backwards and forwards test