The Care Act 2014
The Care Act passed into law in May 2014. The Act introduces major reforms to the legal framework for adult social care including superseding the majority of legislation from the past 65 years, with changes to the funding system, the duties of local authorities and the rights of those in need of social care.
In general terms the changes to the duties and responsibilities come into force as of 1st April, 2015, with some funding aspects, including the Care Cap, following in April 2016.
We have drawn up a Care Act Learning & Development Plan to provide the workforce with underlying knowledge of the Act, to support the learning that will accompany the introduction of new ways of working and changes to policy and procedure.
The initial focus for this year has been on the MeLearning e-learning courses we have bought in. At a minimum, all Directorate staff are expected to have completed the Overview & Wellbeing modules from the e-learning package that we have bought in, with a target of completion in April. As in the L&D plan above, different roles have had different further courses identified for completion.
Here are the courses:
|
Course ID |
Course name |
|---|---|
|
1 |
Care Act - Introduction and Overview |
|
2 |
Care Act - Information and Advice |
|
3 |
Care Act - Assessment and Eligibility |
|
4 |
Care Act - Independent Advocacy |
|
5 |
Care Act - Charging and Financial Assessment |
|
6 |
Care Act - Deferred Payments |
|
7 |
Care Act - Care and Support Planning |
|
8 |
Care Act - Personal Budgets |
|
9 |
Care Act - Direct Payments |
|
10 |
Care Act - Review of Care and Support Plans |
|
11 |
Care Act - Transition to Adulthood |
|
12 |
Care Act - Integration Cooperation and Partnerships |
In general terms, some people will be looking at 5-6 courses, others, including all senior managers and ACM staff will be expected to complete all 12 courses. Access to all or a proportion of these courses can be arranged through workforce development. This e-learning will also be made available to the Private & Voluntary sector colleagues, with details as to how to access is coming in the very near future.
On top of this we will be providing more detailed looks at the main aspects of the Act, for managers and for the wider workforce as identified by roles. W are also liaising on a regional basis to access further resources, particularly with regard to specialist roles affected by new duties under the Act.
The Act in its entirety can be downloaded from the Government Publications website.
For summaries of the key elements of the Act view the Fact Sheets.
The Department of Health guidance on the regulations and consultation process is available here.
The Government’s final set of Care Act regulations and guidance is available here
