This is a snapshot measure of supported clients at the year-end where the support is ‘long term’ and has been in place for at least 12 consecutive months.
This information is important because it identifies the cohort of clients for whom the council has invested (and may continue to invest) significant sums of money and who are potentially the most vulnerable, requiring regular reviews owing to their need for ongoing support.
When the information from LTS001c is combined with the review data collected in LTS002b, a clearer picture will emerge of the demands this group is placing on the local authority and whether the level of demand is increasing (greater numbers, more intensive packages of care required) as well as the effectiveness of attempts to ‘re-enable’ this group through short term support packages (appearing in measure STS002b).
In all respects, the guidance for LTS001c is identical to the relevant sections of LTS001b above. Only a few of the breakdowns required of LTS001b are needed for LTS001c. The tables look identical to LTS001a but are a snapshot measure as per LTS001b. The only difference is that clients must have been in receipt of long term support for at least 12 consecutive months on 31 March.
It is recognised that determining whether support arrangements have been in place for more than a year is not trivial. There may be interruptions to care (e.g. because clients are admitted to hospital for a short period) which do not constitute a termination of support.
Authorities may decide to use a ‘rule of thumb’ when working out how to include clients in this measure. It is important for validation and associated data quality evaluations to for councils to provide details of how this was determined in the General Comments at the bottom of the LTS001c data return workbook.
As mentioned in the guidance for LTS001a and b, some types of service such as equipment and adaptations are now excluded from the definition of long term support. The table provided in the guidance for measure LTS001a applies here in the same way.