The Care Act 2014

An Introduction

The Care Act 2014 The Good, The

Not So Good or The Could be Better?

From
Repair only helping after
a crisis
Fragmentation separate
NHS and social care
services
Paternal /Maternal we
know best

To
Prevention helping to
stop people getting into a
crisis
Integration - joined up
services with partners
working together
Personal person knows
best

Exclusive doing to

Inclusive doing with

The Care Act Principles

Promote health & wellbeing

Prevent the need for care and support where possible

Focus on improving peoples lives

Support families & carers

Care services must be of a high standard

Adult social care, NHS and housing work together

Financially protect the public who need care

Similar ways of working across boundaries

Under the Care Act, councils must promote well-being when

carrying out any of their care and support functions.
Well-being is about:

personal dignity (including being treated with respect)

physical and mental health and emotional wellbeing
protection from abuse and neglect
control by the person over their day-to-day life;
taking part in work, education, training or fun
social and economic wellbeing
good and suitable living accommodation
the persons contribution to society
family and personal relationships

As well as thinking about Well Being Councils must also

think about and remember some other important
principles:
starting with the belief that the person is the best to decide
what well - being means to them

Start with what the person thinks, what they want, what
they believe

Think about how to stop or slow down someones need for

care and support or working in ways that stop someones
support needs growing

Make sure all the decisions that are made think about
everything in someones life

Other important principles:

People being part of decisions as much as possible having
the right information and support to be able to properly take
part
Getting a balance between the persons wellbeing and that
of any friends or relatives who are part of caring for them
the need to protect people from abuse and neglect.
The need to keep and protect the rights and freedom of
choice of each person as far as possible.

The Care Act is built around people, it:

- makes sure that peoples well-being, and what matters to

them, will be at the heart of every decision that is made;

- puts carers on the same footing as those they care for;

- creates a new focus on preventing and delaying needs for

care and support, and building on the strengths in the
community;
- helps people to be able to choose their own support through
plans and personal budgets, and makes sure a range of high
quality services are available locally.

Whats starting in 2015

Information & advice about care, support and
finance
High quality care & support services
Providers are fit for purpose and financially
stable
People, including carers, are eligible for support
if they have needs that have a significant impact
on their lives
Assessments, care & support plans, reviews
must involve the person
Personal budgets / direct payments must be
offered

Whats starting in 2015

Deferred payments must be offered if a care home is

considered
Adults will be safeguarded from abuse and neglect
Care & support for people who move areas will be
consistent
Children in need will be prepared for adult care and
support
Care & support will be provided for people who are
eligible but who are in or leaving prison
New Care Quality Commission regulations and
ratings of care providers

Whats starting in 2016

New financial thresholds for support with residential care
costs (assets & savings threshold up from 23,250 to
118,000)
Cap on care & support costs (people over 65 years who
are eligible for care and support spend no more than
72,000 on their care & support services in their lifetime)
New charging regulations for care and support

New council administered independent personal budgets

for people whoare eligible for community based care &
support but who fund themselves

Council administered individual care accounts to keep

account of independent personal budget spend up to
72,000 cap on care costs

How Councils are getting ready

Every Y&H council is doing work to get ready led by a local project
manager

Every area is working on similar things like

assessment & support planning
Carers
Finance
information & advice
workforce
Safeguarding
IT

Two national assessments pf progress have shown Y&H councils are

progressing well on getting ready

The worries??

Some big worries:

Finance will there be enough money to make this work with the
huge cuts in council budgets?
Demand will there be enough capacity to cope with likely
increases in assessments and carers support?
Workforce is there enough time and capacity to train the
workforce in new ways of working?
IT are current systems good enough to support
implementation?
Communication what key messages should be given, to who
and when?

Regional work
Care Act Lead and local leads network

Finance helping councils to plan for what people will ask for and
cost
Workforce plans for regional training & support
Communication plans include getting the same big messages
and help to get the NHS involved
Safeguarding helping safeguarding adults boards to take on their
new legal role
Information Technology developing a regional approach to the
use of IT to support it happening
Carers developing a set of protocols across the region to promote
consistency of approach