Care Act - winter update

The Care Act in Devon

Please cascade this through your organisation and teams.

The Goverment's Care Act comes into force from April 2015.

The Government pledges that care and support in England is changing for the better. And if you receive or give care and support, you will be able to benefit from the changes being introduced by the new Care Act, designed to put your wellbeing first.

The Care Act will help to make care and support more consistent across the country and puts the wellbeing of individuals at the heart of health and social care services.

The Government is committed to delivering a national public awareness campaign ‘to create a positive backdrop of awareness amongst care users and carers so that local authority and trusted partner communications land with more impact.’ The campaign, led by the Department of Health and Public Health England, has been divided into two phases:

Pre April 2015:

Pre April 2016:

We are looking at our current policies and will be making some positive changes to the way we work in the future based on:

  • where we are already fulfilling Care Act duties
  • what the gaps are that we will need to fill
  • where the local impact is likely to be the greatest
  • identifying areas of work that are a priority
  • what Devon County Council can afford to deliver and how

You can read more about the key changes below.


Care and Support and You

National campaign January-March

The national care and support public information campaign runs between January–March 2015 to deliver Care Act messages direct to the end user and carer audiences, using the landscape design look and feel, as above.

The nationally-driven communications activity will be rolling out as follows:

  • Online advertising – digital and social media, and through major search engine platforms (e.g. Google, Bing)
  • Radio advertising (Heart and Smooth radio) two 30 seconds adverts: care users and informal carers from 2 February until 15 March 2015
  • National media partnerships – newspapers and magazines via Daily/Sunday Mirror, Best magazine, Real People magazine in publications of 9 Feb-16 March – advertorials, pull-outs in Sunday supplements
  • Door Drops: Leaflets letterbox door drops to 64,000 + households in the Devon County Council (DCC) area 16-28 February 2015 by Royal Mail
  • GP waiting rooms leaflets in 20% of DCC areas supplied nationally, DCC will supply the remaining 80% of GP sites and also libraries from January-16 March 2015
  • Leaflets to 50 LibrariesDCC will supply leaflets

Please note that activity is unable to continue past March 2015 due to the pre-election period.

Locally we will use a toolkit to adapt national messages. Read our local communications recommendations.

 

Care and Support & You

What to look out for

All national activity will carry the marque (see right), and it has been made available to use by all local authorities and wider partners such as charities and private providers.

Examples of public information:

Additional information not to be given directly to the public:


Key messages

These key national messages are agreed by the Government and describe key aspects of the April 2015 reforms brought in by the Care Act, using clear and concise language tested with the public:


Supporting carers

‘Caring’ for someone covers lots of different things, like helping with their washing, dressing or eating, taking them to regular appointments or keeping them company when they feel lonely or anxious. From April 2015, changes to the way care and support is provided in England mean carers may be able to get more help so that they can carry on caring.

This means that Devon County Council will have to look very differently at how we can best support carers in Devon.


Financial planning

Devon County Council is improving our financial advice and information. We will seek to ensure the right information is available, at the right time and for the right people.

Coming soon... care accounts, Deferred Payment Agreements, and the 'Care cap'. Find out more.


How we provide information

Devon County Council is co-designing and co-producing an effective public information and advice network with partners and stakeholders.

Survey work is being undertaken to provide a local picture of how many service users and carers have web access and confidence to use online information.

Devon County Council's advocacy contract with Devon Advocacy Consortium (DAC) is being updated to ensure people who are referred to DAC will have their eligibility to receive advocacy tested against criteria set out in the Care Act. The Care Act makes it clearer that the purpose of local authority advocacy is to ensure that people are assisted to understand the decisions of practitioners, and the processes that are available to them for challenging these decisions.

Please refer to our stakeholder website, the Care Act in Devon, which is being kept up-to-date as our plans develop.

The Act

Department of Health

Key parts of the Act

The final regulations for Part 1 of the Care Act  is essentially the nuts and bolts of several key parts of the Act, including eligibility criteria.

Easyread: The 2014 Care Act is an easyread summary of the Care Act guidance.

Factsheets

The Department of Health has also produced a series of factsheets that provide short summaries of each sections of the Act. 


In the news

The Guardian

What does the Care Act mean for homecare providers?

The key ways in which statutory guidance from the Act will affect independent, private and voluntary sector providers


LGA

Care Act information

Get in on the Act report – A 12 page summary of key changes being introduced with the Care Act.

‘Must knows of the Care Act’
is a helpful overview of the implications of the Act and some of the big questions to councils.


RipFa

References for those working in social care

Research in Practice for Adults (RiPfA) provides useful information and briefings for professionals.


Videos

Two short videos explaining the Care Act:

video from Skills for Care:

Video

And a video from Social Care Institute for Excellence:

Skills for Care video

Newsletter archive

Previous communications in the newletter section of our website includes our:


Stay in touch

On the main Devon County Council website you can keep in touch with the information and services that matter to you with our free email updates. Just  click the 'informe' icon (see below)

informe

When you subscribe, tick the box called 'Information on the Care Act' under Devon County Council> Adult Social Care>  

Tick the Care Act box

Once we have further information about what we are doing and when, we'll let you know more.

If you would like to ask any questions, or make any suggestions as to how we should approach and implement the Care Act, then please email careact@devon.gov.uk

For further detail on the Care Act projects contact Hannah Hurrell, Project Manager of the Care Act.

Care and Support & You