Accessing info as named person

Accessing information as a named person

The named person role was felt to at least have the potential to empower carers and enable them to exercise rights to access information:

I think it’s (named person role) going to give me a bit more power to be able to talk to the forensic health services.(wife)

Sometimes, however, even requests for information in this context did not automatically lead to relevant information being accessed.  Carers could fruitfully become better informed by virtue of being involved in case meetings such as in CPA reviews.  Participation in such processes had led to carers querying the quality and content of information.  In one instance, a relative’s file was seen by the carer to be dominated by attention to risk issues at the expense of focusing on positive developments, or negative experiences as an inpatient (‘bad things that have happened to them’ while in services).

Forensic carers valued receiving copies of CPA reports and having opportunities to raise questions.  Alternately, sometimes they felt there was too much paperwork making it difficult to make sense of it all, especially if carers were the named person and received the often detailed reports sent in advance of tribunals.  Similarly, some problems were noted with the amount of notice given for meetings, but for some this had improved over the years:

I found out about two years ago that (as named person) I was able to attend my brother’s clinical team meetings. The communication has been very poor as to when these meetings take place – until recently! I now receive an invite which is very helpful indeed and receive medical notes about the meeting which keeps me up to date with my brother’s care. (survey respondent)