Case Work and Case Management
Case management takes time. That time should get you results.
We will work with you within your established procedures or assist you in developing these (see Support and Training).
We will:
1 - First contact (usually your phone call to us):
- Review where you're at with your case
- Listen to the problem
- Give you immediate advice on how to move it forward
- Do this with simple written action points
2 - Formally referred cases:
- Review the evidence and identify gaps and weaknesses
- Identify the detail which needs to be established
- Provide simple checklists to enable front line staff to do this
- Provide documentation to support them in doing this (Case File, Incident Diary, Information Requests to Police, Mental Health Services etc)
- Support staff in developing the confidence of victims and witnesses
- Support staff in making and recording clear case strategy judgement on the evidence secured
- Support staff in establishing the appropriate and proportionate approach to perpetrators on the basis of the evidence established of the perpetrator's behaviour
- Provide clear guidance on the range of statutes available to staff when legal action is appropriate and necessary
- Assist staff in the formation of best evidence: clear statements, formatted for civil proceedings which argue your best case
- Instruct solicitors on your behalf
- Assist staff in the management of orders of the Court and
- Assist staff, most importantly, in the positive management of witnesses' expectations with regard to potential or actual breaches of Court orders
Throughout this we will work actively to ensure that your legal costs are contained, by ensuring that all non-legal work is effectively completed before cases are referred to solicitors.
Building Residents' Confidence
Our experience of case management has led us to the very clear conclusion that simple, solid and steady investigative procedure will establish credible evidence regarding the facts in any particular case. This evidence in turn will form a secure basis for clients to make decisions, in each individual case, as to the appropriate and proportionate intervention for that case; it will provide a justification for this action; it will establish any facts which need to be brought before a Court to facilitate necessary legal action to protect complainants; it will also protect the organization in circumstances where its decision making is challenged.
We are confident that our methodology will ensure the establishment of such evidence. We have already worked with client organizations to develop their own confidence to do this work, through training and mentoring of staff and managers. Relevant and practical training and expert guidance has undoubtedly been key to sustaining this confidence.
Our approach has helped to significantly reduce clients' costs in this otherwise expensive area of their operations by taking on aspects of case management support otherwise likely to be undertaken by solicitors at far higher charging rates than our own. Case management is a separate and different area of expertise to that of legal work and one that legal representatives, lacking housing management experience, do not readily grasp. It is, specifically, the understanding of the realities of engaging members of the community to become effective witnesses and managing the expectations of such witnesses. Moreover, we are able to demonstrate from the work we have done with our existing clients, that officers within their organizations have become more competent and confident, and that, consequently, complainants and witnesses are more likely to be supported and satisfied with the outcomes of cases.
Please get in touch with us if you require housing management support and assistance.
