A newly published report entitled ‘How local authorities allocate resources t0 carers through carer personal budgets’ has found that carers face a postcode lottery in access to support because of significant variations in the way councils carry out assessments, determine eligibility and allocate resources.
The study into how councils treat carers was undertaken by the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York, with funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the School for Social Care Research (SSCR). The research was commissioned ahead of the implementation of the Care Act in April 2015 – which will introduce for the first time an entitlement to support for carers deemed eligible against new national criteria.
To quote the report’s final paragraph:
Implementation of the Care Act in 2015 will strengthen carers’ rights and place a duty on local authorities to meet carers’ eligible support needs equitably and transparently. This study suggests that guidance may helpfully cover the following issues:
- Minimum eligibility thresholds to qualify for a carer Personal Budget (PB).
- Consistency in conducting assessments for carer PBs; training and appraisal may need to be offered where carer assessments are outsourced to voluntary organisations or NHS practitioners.
- The merits of different approaches to calculating levels of carer PBs and to paying PBs to carers.
A feature article by Mithran Samuel entitled “Carers face postcode lottery in support due to variations in thresholds, finds study” was published in Community Care Online on 2nd Jan 2015 and is well worth reading.
This should be read in conjunction with an earlier article by the same author on Care Act Funding entitled Government shifts Care Act cash from self-funder to carer assessments.