The Care Act 2015
Manchester Carers Forum / Gaddum Centre
Presentation from the Carers Perspective
What does it replace
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National Assistance Act 1948
Health Services & Public Health Act 1968
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 (but only for adults)
Health & Social Services & Social Security Adjudications Act 1983
Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986
NHS & Community Care Act 1990
Carers Acts
Health & Social Care Act 2001 (the Act that concerns Direct Payments)
Well Being Duty
Section 1
• The principal of well-being of the cared for and their Carers covers a range
of outcomes such as:
physical and mental and emotional well-being.
participation in work, education and training
social and economic well-being.
• The duty on local authorities is a ‘target’ duty - that is one which directs
the way they carry out their legal functions towards the public but does
not confer rights on individuals of well being.
Prevention Duty
• The duty on local authorities to prevent, reduce and delay needs for care
and support.
• This includes providing or arranging for the provision of services in their
area which will prevent or delay the development of. or reduce the need
for support by carers.
• Local authorities are able to charge for preventative services but the
language originally in the draft Bill has changed from:
‘enabling a local authority to impose a charge’ to
‘permit a local authority to make a charge’.
Duty to provide information and advice
• The Act requires local authorities to provide information and advice
relating to care and support locally.
• Each local authorities to establish an information and advice service about
how the system operates in their area, including:
The choice and types of care and support
How to access care and support
How to access independent financial advice on care issues
How to raise issues of concern
• How could this be delivered?
Advocacy
• Duty to provide independent advocacy to represent and support an
individual if needed to facilitate their involvement in assessments and
preparing support plans (Clause 67)
• This includes advocacy support for carers, carers of children at transition
age and young carers at transition age.
• This need applies where an individual would otherwise experience:
Substantial difficulty in understanding relevant information
Retaining that information
Using or weighing that information
Communicating their views wishes or feelings
• If however the carer has a friend!
Assessment
• The Act makes clear that both adults (needs assessments) and
carers (carers assessments) should be assessed on the
appearance of need and regardless of what the local authority
thinks is the level of their need and regardless of their
financial resources.
• This removes the requirement to ask for an assessment
• It removes the requirement for the carer to be providing
substantial care on a regular basis.
Assessment continued
• The assessment must consider how the provision of support
would enable a carer to achieve their desired day to day
outcomes.
• The assessment must consider whether the carer is willing,
and able, to continue to care.
• The assessment must consider if the carer is working, training
or in education or wishes to continue to do so.
• A local authority, when carrying out a needs or carer’s
assessment, may work jointly with or on behalf of another
body which is carrying out another assessment, such as a
continuing healthcare assessment.
• A carer or the cared for has a right to receive a written record
of the assessment.
• If the cared for refuses an assessment?
Eligibility
• The Care Act puts in place a national eligibility threshold
setting one national level at which needs are great enough to
qualify for funded services. This will replace the Fair Access to
Care System (FACS) which allowed local authorities to choose
between four levels of eligibility.
• For the first time there will also be an eligibility threshold for
carers, details of this threshold are yet to be set out, however
the proposal so far is that it would be equivalent to the
current “substantial level”
Duty to meet care needs
• The Act sets out the circumstances where a local authority
has a duty to meet an adult’s care needs. It also creates the
first ever entitlement to support for carers once assessed.
• The Act makes clear that a local authority does not have a
duty to meet eligible needs that are being met by a carer.
However If a carer were to cease providing care and to stop
meeting any eligible needs, this would trigger a review of the
adult's care and support plan, and may mean that the local
authority is required to meet the needs.
• Carer decides to resume their life before caring, back to work,
education or anything else?
Charging and Financial Assessment
• Local authorities can charge carers for meeting and assessing
their needs (most currently don’t)
• Local authorities can charge the cared for person for assessing
and meeting their needs
• But they can not charge one for the other
• But who does a particular service benefit if its in both
assessments?
• A new cap on the amount a person with care needs should
contribute for their own care, any charges to meeting the
carers needs do not count.
• Care accounts which will record an adult’s progress towards
the cap on costs will be set up for each individual.
Safeguarding
• Where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that
an adult in its area who has needs for care and support is
experiencing risk or abuse (including financial abuse or
neglect) and as a result is unable to protect themselves, they
have to make enquiries to decide what action to take
• These sections also establish safeguarding boards and place a
duty on local authorities to protect the property of individuals
who are being cared for away from home. They can also
recover reasonable expenses from the adult for carrying out
the latter duty.
Children and Families Act 2014
• The Children and Families Act for the first time provides for a
stand alone right to an assessment for young carers. As with
the adult assessment, a young carer now has the right to an
assessment on the appearance of need.
Some further sources of information
www.carers.org
care act briefing June 2014 (pdf)
www.carersuk.org
Care Act 2014 (article)
www.nationalcareforum.org.uk
Care Act Overview – Luke Clements (pdf)