Additional supporting information

To supplement the other sources of information, including the application form and the confirmation from a professional, additional supporting information can be used. This supporting information helps you to establish the individual’s level of need and their entitlement.

This can come from either a professional or from their wider support network, but it is not a requirement in order for you to make a determination.

Additional supporting information from the client’s wider support network should never be used as the confirmation from a professional.

The individual’s wider support network might include:

• family members
• partners
• friends or neighbours
• unpaid carers
• volunteers leading groups or activities the individual attends

It can help to inform you of the impact the individual’s condition, disability or needs has on their everyday life.

Individuals may provide this information with their application or review form, including through the statement of support. If this is the case, you should always consider this information in your decision-making process. This also applies if the individual themselves has provided enough detail on their needs for you to establish their entitlement.

If you need more information on the individual’s needs and they have not provided any additional supporting information, you should consider all of the following:

• what decision-making tool would be most appropriate to gather the information you need
• if contacting the individual themselves or the person acting on their behalf would provide the information you need, and if this would be appropriate i.e. if you know the individual has a hearing impairment or dementia, this may be an appropriate decision-making tool. You should always consider calling the individual first before requesting additional supporting information.
• if requesting additional supporting information is the best tool
• who would be the best source of additional supporting information, if you have established that additional supporting information is the most appropriate decision-making tool.

Additional supporting information is just one decision-making tool that can be used to resolve relevant gaps and inconsistencies. It should not be used as the default tool where you need more information on the individual’s needs.

The role of additional supporting information

Additional supporting information is just one of many decision-making tools you can use to determine an individual’s entitlement. You should refer to the Principles of Decision-Making chapter to determine which tool is the most appropriate on a case by-case basis.

Its purpose is to add detail to the application or review form by describing the individual’s needs on a day-to-day basis. It should give insight into the impact the condition or disability has on the individual’s life.

It should not be used as an alternative way to ‘evidence’ or ‘prove’ what the individual has told us in their application or review form.

Reasons for gathering additional supporting information that are not appropriate include:

• where you have concluded that you do not need a confirmation from a professional, but you want someone other than the individual to give information about their disability or condition
• where you have a suitable confirmation from a professional, but that confirmation does not confirm every detail in the application form.

The reason for gathering additional supporting information that is appropriate is where:

• the individual hasn’t provided the level of detail needed in the application AND
• you think that gathering additional supporting information is the best decision making tool to resolve questions, gaps, or relevant inconsistencies

If you establish that additional supporting information is the appropriate tool to gather this information, you need to consider who would be the best source for this information.

For example, health care professionals are less likely to be able to observe the individual’s nighttime care needs. Some allied health professionals like physiotherapists and occupational therapists can offer observations on this, but not every individual will have contact with this type of professional.

Therefore, people closely connected with a disabled person can be useful sources of information about the impact a disability or condition has on an individual, such as social care professionals and friends and family. This is why information from the individual’s wider support network is particularly valuable.

If the source of this additional supporting information is a professional, it is possible that it can also act as a confirmation from a professional. Where the information can act as both types of supporting information, you should be careful not to use the additional detail as a tool to ‘evidence’ or confirm every need. This is in keeping with a trust-based approach where you do not use, or gather, information for the purpose of ‘proving’ what an individual has told us.

Once you have established the confirmation, this additional detail should only be used to inform your understanding of their needs.

When a confirmation from a professional is also additional supporting information

It is possible that one piece of information from a professional can act as both:

• confirmation from a professional
• additional supporting information at once.

You should not disregard this information just because:

• you have used the same document as the confirmation from a professional
• the application form provides enough detail for you to establish the individual’s entitlement.

You should ensure that you are using any additional detail as additional supporting information.

However, you should be mindful that any additional detail provided in a confirmation from a professional is not used as a means to ‘evidence’ what the individual has told us in their application form. It should be used to inform your understanding of their needs.

For example, an individual may submit an outpatient’s summary written by a consultant alongside their application. In this summary, the consultant broadly confirms the condition of the individual. This is the confirmation from a professional. The summary continues to detail the symptoms of the individual and what the next steps in treatment are. This information is additional supporting information as it can be used to understand the individual’s level of needs and to establish their entitlement.

Related Reading

• contacting the individual with follow up questions
• supporting information see: determining the best source
• requesting information through the client-led route
• requesting information from the wider support network