Practice Guidance - Community Meals staff

7.1 Where Community Meals staff depend on the individual for access, they must allow time for people to get to the door and check whether they can hear the bell/knocker.

7.2   If there is no response, the Community Meals staff should check through the windows and call/look through the letterbox. If there is no response then they should contact the Adult Helpdesk within thirty minutes.

7.3   If a person can be seen to be collapsed or in such a condition that warrants extreme concern to their well-being, then the Community Meals staff should contact the emergency services at once and inform their line manager. If the accommodation is warden assisted, then the Meals on Wheels provider should either locate the warden if they are on site or inform the Adult help desk to contact the warden in order to gain access. The Community Meals staff should wait or ensure another person e.g. neighbour, remains present until assistance arrives.

7.4   The CSO will telephone the person and failing that, any known emergency contact to establish the whereabouts of the individual. If the person is located and there are no concerns, then they should contact the Community Meals provider and update them.

7.5   If the CSO is unable to establish what has happened to the person, they should send an urgent referral to the locality office and telephone the Duty manager to make them aware. It may be appropriate for the duty worker to contact Community Steps staff to see if they have any workers in the area who could call in to the address. If the person is still not located then consideration must be given by the Duty Manager to calling the police. Once the situation is resolved the Duty Manager/worker should inform the Community Meals provider of the outcome.

7.6 If an incident occurs outside of locality office hours, Community Meals staff should make initial enquiries and if they fail to locate the person then they should contact the Out of Hours service to instigate an investigation.