Tag Archives: adult social care
The Care Bill
The Care Bill builds on the draft Care and Support Bill published last year. All the major elements of the draft bill remain – wellbeing, prevention, carers’ rights, choice and personalisation. Most of the changes from the draft bill are around the detail, but nevertheless will involve some reconsideration by local authorities. Changes include:
• greater emphasis on promoting prevention
• more focus on supporting people who are not eligible for state-funded support
• details about implementing the cap on care costs
• new responsibilities for local authorities and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on provider failures
• a new power for safeguarding adults boards but no powers of entry for social workers.
The Care Bill will be subject to detailed scrutiny as it passes through the Lords over the summer. Overall, this legislation will require a massive change for local authorities with adult social care responsibilities, all at a time of major budget pressure. Documents relating to the Care Bill can be accessed through the Care Bill page of the Department of Health website.
Queen’s Speech 2013
The Queen has delivered her speech to the House of Lords setting out the Coalition Government’s programme for the next Parliamentary year. In this briefing, we highlight the bills relevant to local government. We also provide a full list of all the bills and draft bills announced as well as the relevant links.
How much do councils spend on early action?
The idea that forestalling an issue before it arises is cheaper and leads to better social outcomes has been a part of the political consensus on both sides of the ideological spectrum for many years.
The LGiU’s new project shows that early action is a concern for private, public and voluntary sectors
Outcome-based commissioning in domiciliary care: overview of regional roundtables
Following on from our 2012 publication Outcomes Matter: effective commissioning in domiciliary care, the LGiU worked with Mears, a leading provider of home care and support services, to hold a series of roundtable events between November 2012 and February 2013. The six roundtables, which were held in locations across England, aimed to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with outcome based commissioning in adult social care. This extended briefing provides a summary of these discussions.
Public Sector Equality Duty Review: call for evidence
The review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) has moved on a stage, with the steering group issuing a general invitation to submit evidence, with a deadline of Friday 12 April. Information about the review and the call for evidence can now be found on the main government website.
Personal budgets and choice in adult social care
This policy briefing:
considers a report from Think Local Act Personal which identifies large variations in local authorities’ performance in implementing personal budgets for older people and identifies what can be done to improve this
summarises information about choice in social care from a government commissioned review on barriers to choice in public services
will be of interest to local authorities that are responsible for commissioning adult social care.
User-driven commissioning – report by Disability Rights UK and Shaping Our Lives
A recent report considers three means of enabling users of health and social care services to have greater control of how services are commissioned: pooling personal budgets; drawing on service users’ own choices and insights to inform commisioning; and developing peer support from service-user and staff-led mutual organisations.
Public Sector Equality Duty Review – recent developments
Further information is emerging about the review of the public sector equality duty. While this indicates that some progress is being made, it is not yet clear how public sector authorities will be consulted, or if they will be consulted effectively.
This briefing outlines recent developments and makes some comments on the review programme so far. It draws attention to new guidance and research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The briefing is of interest to all tiers of councils; to elected members and officers with responsibility for equalities and community engagement; to corporate policy officers; to service managers and commissioners of services, including in adult social care and children’s services, and to trade unions locally and nationally.
Coalition Mid-Term Review: health and social care
Summary
This briefing covers the Government’s mid-term review and “audit” of its achievements since being elected in May 2010, in respect of the NHS, public health and social care. It provides a brief assessment of the review and looks at what developments there may be over the next few years arising from government policy and legislation on health and social care.
Public Sector Equality Duty Under Review
The terms of reference for a review of the Public Sector Equality Duty were published on 28 November. The review, to be completed by April 2013, and conducted under the Red Tape Challenge, will look at all aspects of the duty with a view to amendment or diminution. This briefing outlines the information currently available.
Given the reputational and business relevance of compliance with equality obligations, local authorities will want to respond. The time imperative means that council can take initial steps to prepare their response prior to the opening of the review.
The briefing is of interest to all tiers of councils; to elected members and officers with responsibility for equalities and community engagement; to service managers and commissioners of services, including in adult social care and children’s services, and to trade unions locally and nationally.
