Foundations | Client Information | Planning

Once the Foundations | Configuration and Foundations | Staff Accounts stages of implementation have been completed, your organisation is ready to create Client records and commence entering Client Details.

This article discusses some important strategic considerations to assist your organisation with planning for this stage of implementation and determining:

• What information should be entered in a Client record
• Who will be responsible for entering this information
• How will data entry be managed

Information on 'how to' complete the required steps is outlined in the related learning material linked at the end of this article for your reference.

Privileges: By default, the creation of new Client records is limited to Staff Members with Team Leader privileges. It is, however, possible to remove this restriction and allow all Staff Members to create new Client records by completing the necessary configuration in System Preferences.  

Audience: Authorised Representatives, Team Leaders, and anyone tasked with completing this phase of implementation.

Summary

The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:

• Strategic Considerations
  • What information should be entered in a Client record
    • Client's Personal Information
    • Client Documents
    • Client Goals
    • Client Journals

• Who will be responsible for entering this information
• How will data entry be managed

Strategic Considerations

The purpose of this stage of Foundations is to enter all essential Client information so it is readily accessible by Staff when working with Clients including: 

• Entering comprehensive personal information, along with relevant medical & support information (Client Details) 
• Entering 'Client Goals & Goal Strategies' to reflect the Goals outlined in their Plan and Support Strategies outlined in their Service Agreement
• Uploading key 'Client Documents'
• Recording ongoing support evidence via case notes i.e. 'Client Journals'

Comprehensive Client records will assist your organisation to support Clients based on their individual needs. 

Once critical data has been entered this will enable SupportAbility to become your organisation's primary support tool, ensuring that all Client-related information is readily accessible to Staff when working with Clients. 

Planning is the key to a successful implementation, and we recommend that time is taken to strategise your approach prior to commencing Client data entry. 

To assist you with planning, we have put together this guide which includes important considerations for review as follows:

• What information should be entered in a Client record
• Who will be responsible for entering this information
• How will data entry be managed

Staff tasked with creating Client records require a thorough understanding of what information needs to be included and when to align with your policies and procedures and generate the required outputs.

 Ultimately, your organisation is best positioned to determine the most suitable strategy, due to having an in-depth understanding of the Clients you support, the various Services you deliver, and the information and outputs required.  

What information should be entered in a Client record?

A helpful place to begin strategising your approach to entering Client information is to determine what information Staff regularly require to effectively support the Clients they work with, and what information is required to meet your organisational reporting requirements and NDIS compliance obligations.

Some important considerations include;

• What prior configuration needs to be completed in SupportAbility, in order for the options relevant to your organisation to be available for selection in SupportAbility when entering Client information
• What is the key Client information Staff require access to in SupportAbility for each of the Services your organisation delivers
  • N.B. This may differ between Services. e.g. Day Services and Support Co-ordination
• What Client information should be entered and where will it be entered in SupportAbility i.e. which fields/tabs, to best meet your organisation's requirements
• What information comprises an ideal Client record for your organisation to ensure:
  • all the information Staff require is readily accessible
  • the data entered in SupportAbility can be utilised to generate outputs such as reports, Client Schedules, Emergency Information Forms, etc.
  • Client information is current, accurate, and relevant to meet your organisation's obligations under the NDIS.
• Who will be responsible for creating, entering and updating Client records

Each area of Client information is outlined below to assist your organisation in determining your strategy. This includes strategic considerations, along with links to more detailed guides regarding the related functionality. 

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Client Information

Key Client information is initially entered on three tabs as outlined below:

• Client Details tab - Personal Client information, Client Service Participation, Consent

  

• Status tab - Warnings, Medical Conditions, Behaviours, Immunisations, Routines, Disability Notes, About Me, and Disabilities Summary & Medical Information:

  

• Contacts tab - Client's personal Contacts, Primary Contact, Billing Contact, Emergency Contact

  

Strategic considerations

• Decide what information should be entered by Staff in these tabs.
  N.B. Not all fields will be relevant to your organisation.
• Create an example Client record as a reference tool, leaving those fields which are not relevant or required by your organisation, blank. 
• Ensure Staff tasked with this data entry have access to the required Client information.

Learning Material

Detailed information regarding these features is outlined in the following articles, linked below for reference:

• What is a Client record and who can access it
• How to create a Client record
• Client Service Participation
• Client Consent
• Client Warnings, Medical Conditions and Behaviours
• Client Contacts tab overview
• How to add or update Personal Contacts and link Shared Contacts in the Client Contacts tab

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Client Documents

Important Client Documents such as an NDIS Plan, Intake form, Consent form, Photo, Behaviour Plan, Medication Administration form, etc. may be uploaded and managed from the Documents tab in the Client record. 

Strategic considerations

• What format are Client Documents currently stored in? Hard copy or digital?
  • Consider if any Client Documents will need to be digitised and your plan to manage this.
• Which Client Documents may need to be archived, versus which information is current, relevant and requires regular access and therefore uploaded to the Client record.
• Ensure 'Documents' have been configured correctly in System Preferences. N.B. This was a requirement of Foundations | Configuration. 
  • 'Document Types' must be specific and relevant to your organisation in preparation for Staff uploading Documents to Client records.
  • If 'Compulsory' Documents are required, ensure these have been configured appropriately and consider how Staff will be instructed regarding this. 
• Determine which of the following related features are required, and if so how they will be utilised: 
  • Document Types 
  • Notification - Due/Review Date and Staff Member to Notify
  • Security settings - 'Managers Only' and the ability to lock Documents to a specific Service
• Which Staff are best tasked with uploading Documents to Client records and when should these be uploaded?

Detailed guide

Foundations | Client Documents article (linked below)

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Client Goals

Client's Goals as per their NDIS Plan, and Goal Strategies indicating how Service delivery will support Clients to achieve these Goals can be entered and managed in the Goals tab of the Client record.

Strategic considerations

• Determine how Client Goals will be recorded in SupportAbility and which fields are required for completion in the Goal record. 
• Consider how Goal Strategies are best structured to reflect how your organisation is supporting the Client toward this Goal and what information should be recorded.
• Give thought to tracking Goal progress via Assessments (completed in Client Journals). Do the Goal evaluation levels 1-10 meet your organisation's requirements or do they require configuration? 
• If your organisation delivers specialised Services i.e. Support Coordination and/or NDIS Financial Plan Management, decide if and how Client Goals could be utilised to meet the specific requirements of each Service. 
• How will the Staff tasked with entering Client Goals and Goal Strategies be trained in what is required? Note the example Client record may be a perfect resource for this. 

Detailed guide

Foundations | Client Goals & Goal Strategies article (linked below)

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Client Journals

Client Journals detail all interactions with Clients, and evidence ongoing support which assists them toward their Goals. These may be recorded and managed from the Journal tab in the Client record. 

Strategic considerations

• To ensure Staff have all of the information they require to support Clients, consider if any historic case notes may need to be digitised and/or uploaded as a Client Document. 
• Ensure Journals have been configured correctly in System Preferences. N.B. This was a requirement of Foundations | Configuration. 
  • 'Journal Types' must be specific and relevant to your organisation in preparation for Staff entering Journals in Client records.
  • Journal 'Templates' may be created to assist Staff with entering the correct information. If required, ensure these have been created for the most frequently used Journal Types.
• Determine which of the following related features are required, and if so how they will be utilised: 
  • Journal Types 
  • Privacy Controls of 'Team Leaders' or 'Managers Only' 
  • Linking to a Client Goal and/or a Goal Strategy
  • Entering a 'Goal Progress Assessment' score
  • Journal Actions
• Staff will need to be educated regarding what information needs to be documented and how often Client Journal evidence is required. This must be considered in relation to meeting your organisation's compliance requirements under NDIS. 

Detailed guide

Foundations | Client Journals article (linked below)

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Who will be responsible for entering this information

The experience providers have shared with us is that the most successful implementations are those where the entry of Client records and information is performed by the end-users; Support workers and Staff who will be using SupportAbility. This is for several reasons including Staff familiarity with your organisation's processes, Clients and their information; but also data entry is an effective system training opportunity and helps expedite the data entry process.

Centralising data entry to only a few people potentially extends the duration of time it takes to complete data entry of Client information thus delaying deployment organisation-wide; it limits system knowledge to a select few and monopolises these resources from other responsibilities for an extended period. 

Outsourcing to an external third party or assigning the key responsibility to temporary Staff creates issues of dependency on external supports, loss of knowledge and expertise when temporary staff leave, and entrusting the process to someone who does not have the depth of understanding of your business to align system utilisation with organisational policies and procedures.

It may also be helpful to delegate data entry tasks according to Staff roles and responsibilities and allocate time and resources in addition to their standard duties.

'Only Team Leaders can create Client Records' setting

It is important to note that when an installation is provisioned the 'Only Team Leaders can create Client Records' setting is turned ON by default as outlined in the  How to configure who can create a Client record article, linked below for reference. 

When this setting is active only Staff with the 'Team Leader 'privilege (as granted in their Staff Account, either at the Site/Service level or global privilege) can add new Client records.  As the Team Leader privilege provides other high-level functionality relating to Activities, it may not be appropriate to grant this privilege to some Staff Members.

There are several options available here as follows:

• Grant the 'Team Leader' privilege temporarily to a select number of Staff who are tasked with creating Client records in the initial setup phase, then remove the privilege later when no longer applicable to their role and responsibilities in SupportAbility,  OR
• Those Staff who have been appropriately granted the Team Leader privilege according to their role could create Client record shells, and then other Staff, e.g. Support Staff working directly with Clients, could enter Client Information once the record has been created,  OR
• A Staff Member with the 'Edit System Preferences' privilege could turn off this setting to allow all Staff to create Client records, when it is not appropriate to grant Staff the Team Leader privilege or to share the load of completing this task across a greater number of people.

Delegating the task of data entry across multiple roles

We have listed below some suggestions regarding which Staff members might manage different areas of Client information, however, this is best determined by your organisation: 

• Staff who work closely with Client's and have access to their records & information are usually those tasked with entering this information into SupportAbility, along with uploading Client Documents. 
• Staff who perform intake or review NDIS plans could possibly enter Client Goals as they are working directly with the Client's NDIS Plan which outlines the Client's Goals in Part two of the Plan. 
• Alternatively, Team Leaders may be better suited to entering Client Goals. Staff at this level are often tasked with entering Goal Strategies to map how service delivery will assist Clients to meet these Goals.
• Support workers and Staff working directly with Clients, who traditionally record case notes, usually enter Client Journals and link these to Client Goals & Goal Strategies as evidence of ongoing support.

It is important that all roles and responsibilities are clearly mapped and communicated to all Staff involved. 

These approaches to completing Foundations are discussed further in the  Foundations | Client Information | Data Entry Approaches article linked at the end of this article. 

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How will data entry be managed

How data entry of Client information will be managed is best determined by your organisation taking into consideration available resources, and the timelines for when your organisation wishes all Staff to be using SupportAbility as their primary support tool, for all Client-related information.

Important considerations include:

• Whether each of the four key areas of Client information (Client Details, Client Documents, Client Goals, and Client Journals) will be completed sequentially, or simultaneously.
  • If your organisation selects to enter all areas of Client Information simultaneously, then greater resources may be required to achieve this, and the process may be assisted by different Staff managing each of the areas of Client Information, relative to their roles, as outlined in the previous section.
    
• Plan for data-entry to be distributed across multiple Staff e.g. each Staff member is responsible for creating a few Client records and entering the Client Information.
  
• Some organisations prefer to limit the number of Staff who can create Client records for the purpose of reducing the potential for 'blank' Client records to be created, and provide greater control over who can create Client records.
  • If your organisation wishes to limit the ability to create Client records to a select number of Staff, this can be enforced by ensuring the Only Team Leaders can create Client records setting is turned on in System Preferences::Settings, and granting the 'Team Leader' privilege to the relevant Staff.
• Either Admin Staff or Team Leaders could create the 'shell' of all Client records and then assign other Staff to complete the data entry of specific information related to their roles. Bookmarks can be used to assign these tasks, and a notification will appear on the relevant Staff member's Dashboard as a reminder to complete the task.
• Allocate adequate time for Staff to perform this task in addition to their standard duties.
  • Noting the first record will always take a bit longer, as Staff will need to familiarise themselves with this new system and process.
• A strategy is required regarding how Staff will be trained regarding how your organisation has chosen to use SupportAbility. 

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