The Care Act 2014 came into force one month ago.
To be strictly accurate Phase 1 of the Care Act came into force:
Phase 1, the bulk of the Act covers the way in which local authorities should carry out carer’s assessments and needs assessments , how local authorities should determine who is eligible for support; and defines the new obligations on local authorities.
In April 2016 the remaining parts of the Care Act, (Phase 2), will come into effect, including how local authorities should charge for both residential care and community care, and the introduction of the ‘care cap’.
The Act has implications for all adults receiving social care – and their carers. But there is a massive need for the dissemination of information about the Act, especially to those carers. The scale of that task was a bit intimidating, but here at Rescare we have now at least made a start. Please see our Care Act 2014 page (under the Legislation & Policies menu or click on this link. The page is still under construction and will be added to as we ourselves learn more about how the Act is being implemented… and note that the guidance to professionals working in the care sector is only only now being disseminated, and will be the subject of ongoing updates e.g. via the SCIE website. Take that as a suggestion that not all care professionals will be ‘up to speed’ with Care Act.