Issue - meetings

The Director of Health and Wellbeing presented a report on the plans in place to support the implementation of the Care Act 2014 in Rotherham.

The Care Act aimed to transform the social care system and its funding.  The Department of Health was working together with the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to develop and shape the Regulations which would come under the primary legislation and to inform the statutory Guidance on how local authorities would meet the legal obligations.

The Bill placed a duty on local authorities to carry out their care and support functions with the aim of integrating services with those provided by the NHS and other health related services including house, to be in place by 2018.

The key elements of the Act as currently laid out included:-

-          Improving Advice, Information and Guidance

-          Entitlement to Care and Support

-          Assessment of Eligibility

-          Personalisation

-          Financial Assessment

-          Cap on Care Costs

-          Deferred Payments

-          Safeguarding

-          Carers

-          Portability of assessment/Provision

-          Provider Failure

-          Transition from Child to Adult

It was anticipated that additional funding would be made available to local authorities in relation to the new duties but the level of which was not clear.  Some of the issues the Council would need to address were:-

-          Understanding the implications for the Council of a national eligibility framework

-          Clear information about self-funders, not just in care homes but also those with eligible needs who were purchasing community-based support services who would be entitled to an assessment of need, support plan and annual review

-          An understanding of the new processes that would need to be put in place for the provision of ‘care accounts’ including financial assessments of self-funders, monitoring of self-funders’ eligible care costs, production and provision of ‘care account’ statements for self-funders

-          Assessment of financial implications of the cap on care costs and of an increase in the upper threshold for financial support from the Local Authority

-          Awareness of those, including carers, who had unmet needs who would be eligible for social care services

-          Understanding of the number of carers who would be entitled to an assessment to support planning where relevant

-          Financial implications of extended carers’ support services which would be non-chargeable

-          Arising implications from the responsibility of ensuring there were sufficient preventative services which delayed people’s need for long term care and support

-          Development of processes to recover costs for meeting a person’s eligible needs where funding responsibility laid with another local authority

-          Resource implications of extended responsibilities in relation to transitions from Children’s to Adults Services

-          Implications for training assessment and care management staff with a move to proportionate assessments with an ‘asset based’ approach

-          Implication of extended responsibilities to provide written information and advice to people with non-eligible needs on what could be done to prevent or delay the need for care and support

In order to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9