All eyes on 1 April: Care Act training starts at SCIE

Care Act learning event, 27 January 2015

On Tuesday we held our first Care Act learning event and thanks to SCIE staff for scurrying around, organising badges, welcoming delegates and taking photos at the first overview session in London. The picture shows local authority staff, care providers and others getting stuck into detail of the Care Act 2014. With Just over two more months to go until it comes into effect, social care minds are concentrating on the changes. 

Delegates provided a lively discussion and really came together well, but they do seem concerned about how councils are going to cope with the new responsibilities that the act places on them; and indeed, how the changes are to be paid for.

I thought it might be useful to take your through our contribution to supporting implementation of the Care Act 2014. Before I do though, I encourage you to watch and listen to this presentation, voiced by my colleague Patrick Hall (practice development manager – policy); because it’s a really helpful introduction to changes that start on 1 April.

Learning events. See above and this link. Tick.

Commissioning advocacy. Under the Care Act, local authorities will have to provide independent advocacy when someone has ‘substantial difficulty’ being involved in the process of care, and does not have an appropriate individual to support them. Our guide is called Care Act 2014: Commissioning independent advocacy. The guide is based on good practice in commissioning and sets out principles that local authorities should follow. It also provides a checklist to help assess their current practice. Version two of this resource will be on the SCIE site soon.

Assessment and eligibility. From April 2015, carrying out social care assessments - and determining eligibility for adults - are to be separate processes. Under The Care Act, local authorities must ensure that any adult who appears to require care and support - including carers with support needs - has their needs assessed. This is regardless of their likely eligibility for state-funded care. Assessment should be proportionate and appropriate to individual situations and take into account factors such as fluctuating need – Someone’s condition could be different on different days so this must be factored in. Our assessment and eligibility resources are here. Here’s a handy article from my colleague (and SCIE practice development manager) Rose De Paeztron.  

Prevention Library. Investing early in prevention in adult social care can reduce or delay the need for costly crisis intervention or care services – and support people’s independence and wellbeing for longer. Our new Prevention Library finds information and examples of emerging research and practice in the provision of prevention services across England. The resource, which has been commissioned by the Department of Health, will run as a “beta” site for the first six months. SCIE is continuing to develop the Prevention Library and is particularly keen to feature more service examples, either pilot or established, reflecting the broad spectrum of prevention provision in adult social care.

Adult safeguarding. A new guide focuses on the sharing of sensitive or personal information between the local authority and its safeguarding partners (including GPs and health, the police, service providers, housing, regulators and the Office of the Public Guardian) for safeguarding purposes. This may include information about individuals who are at risk, service providers or those who may pose a risk to others. It aims to enable partners to share information appropriately, and lawfully, to improve the speed and quality of safeguarding responses. The guide will be useful to frontline workers and managers from a range of sectors who work with people with care and support needs.

We’ll soon have Care Act resources on transitions. And do book onto our remaining Care Act learning events. You’ll be met with a smile; you’ll meet like-minded professionals who all want to get up-to-speed on the Care Act. 

And roll on 1 April.


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SCIE’s Care Act resources are part of a suite of tools commissioned by the Department of Health in partnership with the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to support those commissioning and providing care and support in implementing the Care Act 2014. Find out more on the LGA website. More support can be found on the Think Local Act Personal site.

Grimsby 0 Essex 2: How moving house made me think about disruption to older people’s lives

Fans of the 80s band The Housemartins will remember their album entitled London 0 Hull 4. It took a swipe at the metropolitan elite and championed the band’s home town with a fake football result. I’m a proud Yorkshireman who lived up there near Hull for many years – until I got my present role as Chief Executive here at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in London.  So after several months travelling up north on a Friday afternoon, along with selling a house and then buying one in Essex, we’ve now settled into our new abode.

All very disruptive. But it got me thinking. Our move is entirely of our own making: the motivation is a change of job, and the beauty is we’re nearer our children, who study and work in London. However, what if you’re older and you move, and it’s not what you’re personally planning?

Here at SCIE we’re big fans of people staying in their own homes for as long as possible and / or as long as they want, but sometimes a care home is the right option. But it’s a challenge. One form of isolation can be replaced with another and in a care home the new surroundings - and the impact of the personal change - can have a similar effect on your state of mind. 

Last December, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence announced a quality standard kite-mark on the mental wellbeing of people living in care homes. Our Chair, Lord Michael Bichard, responded by saying that residents need to become part of the communities they live in; care homes can create opportunities for other local residents to play a role in the life of the care home. In other words, care homes shouldn’t be hidden away. Often, older people’s mental health can easily be overlooked; but looking after mental health can be just as important as good physical care.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP talked about ‘our national shame’ in a speech last year when referring to loneliness. It’s important that care homes are included in this. That’s because loneliness is not just something we feel when we don’t have anyone to talk to, but it can be because of a state of isolation, depression or abandonment.

But another critical factor is co-production. We don’t exist just to serve up what care and support we think people need. We encourage their involvement as experts by experience. On our film on nutritional support in care homes, the man who asks for tripe is shouted down by other residents, but he doesn’t care. The main thing is that he’s being consulted - and that can have a massively positive effect on mental health.

I’m settling down to life working in the capital, itself a place where you’re told you don’t always talk to your neighbours. (Not like up t’North!) But isn’t it up to me to be involved with my new community? And certainly it’s up to all of us to offer older people the chance to fully take part in their communities, especially if they live in a care home. 

A cracking example of community working in Bexley

This week I met a man in his sixties who's lived with a family for eleven years. It's just the sort of community activity that I've been banging on about since starting as Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in January.  

His name’s Tom and he’s part of the Shared Lives scheme. There are 12,000 Shared Lives carers in the UK. Carers share their family and community life with someone who needs some support to live independently. In this case, Tom has a learning disability but most importantly, the support he gets means he can contribute to his community. 

Alex Fox is a trustee at SCIE and he invited me to see the scheme in Bexley. It's a cracking example of how home, family and community-based ways of working mean that people are more engaged and their lives are improved. It's time that people aren't just the passive recipients of social care. 

We’ve had one party leader speech during the conference season; I look forward to the others and to social care discussions playing a part in the run-up to the General Election campaign. Schemes like this show what can be achieved by unlocking barriers to community engagement. Our Care Act implementation tools, being developed here at SCIE, will be published soon. Let’s hope the new duties that local authorities will take on, for instance, by providing advocacy services, are a stepping stone to empowering users and carers with the tools they need to contribute to their communities. 

I loved the energy and determination of the people who run the local scheme - Catherine, Tom, Bernice and Mandy. They’re developing a project which shows such good practice in home-based care and support in communities; whilst also recognising the contributions, that people with social care needs, can make to family life.  Meeting the carers, Mr and Mrs Sookarry, along with Tom, brought these principles to life.