Trusted Provider Organisation (TPO)

The Care Act 2014 gave local authorities an opportunity to explore the delegation of 'task' and 'responsibility' for the completion of reviews and assessments. A Trusted Provider Organisation (TPO) will increase the capacity of and enable Social Work Services (SWS) to focus its' staff resource on more complex cases by completing the review work required by SWS.

SWS will 'sign-off' and retain responsibility for the assessments. Suffolk County Council (SCC) wish to commission a responsive service with sufficient capacity and flexibility to meet fluctuating demand.

Underpinning the principles of the Care Act, and our Supporting Lives Connecting Communities (SLCC) approach, the Provider will ensure staff (ie TPO Practitioners) adopt a strength-based approach when carrying out Reviews. This will mean working in collaboration with People to enable them to focus on the things they can do for themselves and to build the Review around this.

TPO Practitioners will therefore need to establish and acknowledge the capacity, skills, knowledge, network and potential of both the individual and the local community (see Social Care Institute for Excellence Guide). We have been running a TPO County Pilot which has explored working with TPOs to complete Care Act compliant assessments and prior to the pilot being undertaken, there was a period of market engagement. However it is important that we consult with the market on the learning from the pilot and capitalise on those ideas to maximise the service efficiencies.