Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Statutory Guidance
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Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Statutory Guidance July 2021 Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Statutory Guidance Updated July 2021 to: • reflect new legislation on timescales for adult carer support plans and young carer statements for carers of terminally ill people (mainly Part 2, Chapters 1 and 2); • incorporate guidance on local eligibility criteria for carer support previously published separately (Part 3, Chapter 1); • incorporate illustrative examples on waiving of charges and replacement care also previously published separately (Part 3, Chapter 3); • include checklist on content of local carer strategies previously shared by email (Part 5, Chapter 1); and • update hyperlinks. 1 Table of Contents Summary ................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 13 Part 1: Key Definitions ........................................................................................... 15 Meaning of ‘carer’, ‘young carer’ and ‘adult carer’ ................................................. 15 Part 2: Adult carer support plans and young carer statements ......................... 21 Chapter 1 – Adult carer support plans................................................................... 21 Chapter 2 – Young carer statements .................................................................... 41 Part 3: Provision of support to carers .................................................................. 67 Chapter 1 – Local Eligibility Criteria ...................................................................... 67 Chapter 2 – Duty to provide support to carers ...................................................... 74 Chapter 3 – Waiving of charges and replacement care ........................................ 91 Part 4: Carer involvement .................................................................................... 109 Chapter 1 – Carer Involvement in Services and Service Planning ...................... 109 Chapter 2 – Carer involvement in hospital discharge of cared-for persons ......... 114 Part 5: Local Carer Strategies ............................................................................. 126 Chapter 1 – Local Carer Strategies ..................................................................... 126 Part 6: Information and advice for carers, including short breaks services statements ............................................................................................................ 137 Chapter 1 – Information and advice for carers .................................................... 137 Chapter 2 – Short breaks services statements ................................................... 146 Part 7: Delegation of Functions in the Carers Act ............................................. 151 Part 8: Transitional arrangements ...................................................................... 154 Glossary ................................................................................................................ 162 Annex A: Support to carer or cared-for person ................................................. 165 Annex B: Carers who are also service users (adults or children with support needs) .................................................................................................................... 168 Annex C: Short breaks – definition by Shared Care Scotland ......................... 170 2 Annex D: Carer identification .............................................................................. 173 Annex E: Consent and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ........ 175 Annex F: Local Eligibility Criteria Framework ................................................... 176 Annex F(a) – Illustrative threshold for carer support ........................................... 176 Annex F(b) – Determining the impact of the caring role and associated risk ...... 177 Annex F(c) – Table of Indicators ......................................................................... 178 3 Summary A. Key Messages This is a summary of the statutory guidance for local authorities, health boards and integration authorities on effective implementation of the provisions of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (‘the Act’). It will also be of interest to other organisations working alongside statutory bodies to deliver carer support, as well as the directing authorities of independent or grant aided schools responsible for young carer statements. The Act gives carers rights to a new adult carer support plan or young carer statement without first requiring them to be providing care on a substantial and regular basis. This reflects a preventative approach to identify each carer’s personal outcomes and needs for support through meaningful conversations with individual carers. This preventative approach is also reflected in the requirement to provide information and advice services to carers. The third sector is well placed to help deliver information and advice. Prevention is pivotal in how carers and the people that they care for are supported. Much of carer support is focused on intervening as early as possible in a carer’s journey, including by providing information and support to promote quality of life, independence and engagement with their communities in order to prevent deterioration in their situation. This preventative approach also underpins the integration of health and social care and the embedding of self-directed support as Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care and ongoing work on the reform of adult social care. (The preventative approach is discussed further at Part 3, Chapter 2 - Duty to provide support to carers). The Act also seeks to improve physical and emotional wellbeing and deliver positive outcomes for Scotland‘s carers by ensuring more personalised and effective delivery of carer support. Personalisation is a social care approach which promotes choice, control and independence for people who use services. This can have a significant impact on the lives of carers and the people they provide care to and can help to sustain good caring relationships. The Act requires local eligibility criteria to be set in each local authority area. These frameworks will help local authorities determine the level of support to provide to carers based on their identified needs. Carer involvement is a key principle of the Act. It is intended to empower carers with more useful information about the support that may be available to them and to ensure that they can share their caring experiences and knowledge with those responsible for providing support or services. Carers should be involved in setting local eligibility criteria. Carers and carer representatives must also be involved in the preparation of local carer strategies, short breaks services statements and planning of carer services. Carers must also be involved in hospital discharge processes. 4 B. Local carer strategies The Act requires local carer strategies to be developed across Scotland. These will set out plans to identifying carers, provide support and services to adult and young carers and provide information about local support. The duty to prepare local carer strategies applies to local authorities and relevant health boards but is delegated to integration joint boards1. Local authorities and health boards are strongly recommended to work closely and collaboratively with carers and the third sector in preparing strategies. Part 5 provides guidance on preparing a Local Carer Strategy. C. Carers Journey- Adult Carers C.1 Identification of a carer Under the Act a ‘carer’ is an individual who provides or intends to provide care for another individual. A carer can be caring for one or more cared-for persons. A cared- for person can have one or more carers. They don’t need to live in the same house. See Part 1 of the guidance for further information. An ‘adult carer’ is a carer who is at least 18 years old and is not a ‘young carer’. Part 1 of the guidance contains more information about definitions. C.2 Adult carer support plan (ACSP) Where a person self-identifies as a carer they may request an adult carer support plan (ACSP). If they appear to meet the definition of carer, the responsible local authority must prepare an ACSP. When carers are identified by practitioners, whether in the community or acute settings, they must be offered an ACSP. If they accept the offer the responsible local authority must prepare an ACSP. The ACSP provides a framework for identification of personal outcomes and individual needs for support of adult carers. ACSPs are considered in Part 2 of this guidance. The ACSP links to the duty and power of the responsible local authority to provide substantive support to meet identified needs. Decisions about whether a carer’s identified needs meet local eligibility criteria depend on the information obtained through the outcomes focused conversation with the carer whilst preparing their ACSP. The information within the ACSP will include the nature and extent of care; the impact of caring; and the extent to which the carer is able and willing to provide care. Thus decisions about support and the completion of the ACSP (with information on carer support to be provided) are mutually dependent. 1 Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed Local Authority Functions Etc.) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2017 and the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed