A contract is a formal agreement between the client(s) and the organization and is seen as a commitment to fully participate in the activities set out in a service plan. The contract is developed through collaboration between the case worker and the participant(s).
Contracts can be issued to a plan participant or a nominated representative. A nominated representative is a person who can act on behalf of the service plan participant, e.g., the parent or guardian of a child. The service plan contract outlines the goal, sub-goals and plan items within a service plan. The contract, and all associated contract text, is created in the preferred language of the participant or nominated representative. Multiple signatories can be selected from the plan participants of the service plan.
Once a contract is issued and is awaiting acceptance from the client(s), this signifies that the activities set out in the contract are pending acceptance by the client and therefore no new plan groups, sub-goals or plan items may be added to or removed from the service plan. If an issued contract is rejected, plan groups, sub-goals, and plan items can once again be added or removed as necessary and the contract can be updated and reissued. Once a client(s) is in agreement with the activities set out in the contract, it is signed and the contract is deemed to be accepted. This will automatically activate the approved service plan.
Even after a service plan contract has been issued and accepted, changes can be made to the service plan details which are used to track the progress of the service plan and which may change during the lifecycle of the service plan. This includes the ability to change the details of the plan groups, sub-goals and plan items, the ability to create, modify and delete Milestones, the ability to create Baselines, the ability to update Client Participation information, the ability to add Plan Participants and Nominated Representatives, and the ability to document other activities such as recording communications, events, and notes.
Case workers may choose to preview and print out the details of a Contract before or after a Contract has been issued and accepted by the client(s). The details displayed in the generated Contract represent the most current information about the sub-goals and plan items included in the Contract.
Where contracts are not considered binding, Cúram Service Planning provides the ability to add new plan groups, sub-goals, and plan items to a service plan and issue a new contract even after a contract has been accepted by a client by allowing a service plan type to be configured to allow multiple contracts. If a client's needs or circumstances change, the existing contract can then be updated to include new sub-goals and plan items. If a client's needs change and the service plan type is not configured to allow multiple contracts, a new service plan must be created or the original service plan can be cloned to create a new version of the service plan.