Brighton & Hove City Council Adult Care Services How We Are Planning to Implement The Care Act 2014 1 Purpose This document describes our approach to the implementation of the Care Act 2014 in Brighton & Hove. It does not set out what is in the Care Act. Further information on the changes outlined in the Care Act can be found in the Department of Health’s factsheets link) and the summary sheet at Appendix 1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-2014-part-1-factsheets Background There has been a long period of national discussion about how the system of care and support in England can be improved, particularly about the way that individuals fund the cost of their adult social care. Two important reports were published in 2011: The Law Commission’s review of Adult Social Care law and the report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support (Dilnot Commission). The government accepted the principles of the recommendations in these reports and produced a white paper called ‘Caring for our future’. This was followed by the Care Bill, which received Royal Assent on 14 May 2014 and is now an Act of parliament. The Care Act brings the biggest changes in adult social care in the last 60 years. The Act aims to address previous problems in the law by:    Creating one main legal framework that is clear and easier to understand Bringing the law up to date to focus on the outcomes that people want to achieve, rather than their disabilities, and put the individual in control of their life Improving areas of unfairness, such as the calculation used to decide who pays what for care. Most of the changes in the law contained in the Act will come into force from April 2015. Reforms to the funding of Adult Social Care will start from April 2016. Some of the biggest changes that the new law will bring are:     General duties on councils about the health and wellbeing of its residents, integration, prevention and providing information and advice New rights for carers, putting them on the same legal footing as the people they care for A national eligibility criteria The way that people pay for care and support: A cap on the lifetime costs of care, increased capital threshold, universal deferred payments. What we do now and how much we will need to change Although there are significant changes in the Care Act, it also consolidates and updates current law and policy guidance. The degree to which local authorities will need to change will depend to an extent on what they do now and how they have already responded to policy and guidance. In Brighton & Hove, we do not underestimate the change required, but feel confident that we have good practice and strong local partnerships to build on. These include our approach to personalisation, our arrangements for safeguarding vulnerable people, providing deferred payments 2 and our work with carers. There are other aspects of the act such as Information & Advice and supported assessment which will require development and in particular we need to take full account of the needs of people who fund their own care. The aims of the Act and the priorities of Adult Social Care in Brighton & Hove are well aligned. This is reflected in our Corporate Plan, most specifically in the section covering ‘vulnerable adults supported to live healthy independent lives’ and also in the related strategic policies which support this, such as our ‘Market Position Statement’. Although the Care Act provides challenges in its implementation in the city it also provides opportunities to deliver our local vision for services. We have recognised that our plans for the Care Act must take account of our Better Care programme and this is reflected in the arrangements detailed in the next section. We are clear that if we are to successfully implement the Care Act and ensure better outcomes for local people then it is essential that our implementation plans are underpinned by the Councils values ; Respect, Collaboration, Efficiency, Openness, Creativity and Customer Focus. As we plan how we will implement the changes in the Act we will need to make sure that we do so in a way that:      Ensures the Council meets its statutory duties Applies the law in a way that is consistent with our vision for Adult Social Care in Brighton & Hove Is equitable for all individuals Is consistent, with good quality services, keeping people as safe as possible Is sustainable. What we are doing in Brighton & Hove to implement the Act The implementation of the Care Act is being overseen through a Modernisation Board (Adult Care) which is chaired by the Executive Director Adult Services and has senior representation from across the Council and other key organisations in the city. The Executive Director also chairs the Better Care Programme Board. A dedicated programme management approach has been put in place with a Programme Manager to support this. We have reviewed all the elements of the Care Act and established how fit for purpose we currently are and what actions we need to take to ensure that we are fully compliant with the legislation once it comes into effect. Alongside this we have identified key risks to achieving our implementation plans and mitigating actions we can take if required. Much of the detail of the Act is in the regulations and guidance. This has been published in relation to the parts of the Act that come into force from April 2015. Further regulation and guidance will be drafted for the parts of the Act that will come into force from April 2016. As these are finalised, emerging changes could have an impact on what we need to do in response. Two types of work streams are in place within the overarching programme ; ‘enabling’ work streams covering workforce development, communication, Information & Technology, Finance and Performance to support the overall implementation ; specific themed work streams linked to the 3 requirements of the Care Act e.g. Information & Advice , Advocacy, Charging & Deferred payments. The enabling work streams are covering both the Care Act and the Better Care programme to promote a co-ordinated and integrated approach. Progress is reported regularly into the Modernisation Board. The ‘leads’ are not working on their own, but using established networks of stakeholders where possible or, in some cases, establishing new ones. Resources have been identified to support delivery of these streams of work. For each clause of the Care Act, we will review our current policies and procedures to ensure that they meet the requirements of the Act .This will also apply to areas that are completely new and where we need to develop policies and procedures. We are also working closely with colleagues regionally on common themes, sharing best practice and making use of the support tools that are being developed nationally, for example the work of Skills for Care re workforce and SCIE re assessment processes. As part of this national activity we are undertaking 3 stocktakes over the year to report on our progress in implementation planning. We have been seeking to identify the anticipated costs of the Care Act implementation using national models; this covers both implementation costs 2015/16 and the costs from 2016 onwards when the funding reform is introduced. 4