Single Assessment Process in Hertfordshire: Investing in Change Management

This paper describes how Hertfordshire met the challenge of providing a training programme to improve services for older people, with the introduction of single assessment, in the complex setting of a shire county with a number of PCTs, acute trusts, a county partnership trust and a county council social care service.Having set the context for single assessment, it describes the Hertfordshire approach. It focuses on some of the key drivers for successful implementation of such a radical programme of change: the siting of sessions by geographical location, the crucial role of managers and team leaders, setting the context of the sessions in the reality of staff experience, the importance of a shared language, common paperwork and clear protocols, and the role of the local implementation teams in supporting the process both through its implementation phase and into the future.Finally, it recognises that this training programme was only one aspect of equipping staff to be confident and competent in their assessments of older people, and that service improvements will be achieved gradually, requiring commitment from managers and support from the local implementation teams.