Personal Care at Home Bill - briefing
Background
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced at the Labour Party Conference (Oct 09) that people in England with the “highest care needs” would receive free personal care at home. This Bill has been brought before Parliament to make this a reality for people beginning 1st October 2010.
Process of becoming law
The Bill has just finished its Second Reading in the House of Commons. It now enters Committee Stage which is followed by a report and then a Third Reading in the House of Commons. This process is echoed in the House of Lords with a final consideration of amendments in both houses. Labour aim to pass this law before Parliament dissolves for a General Election. However, if passed it could still be repealed by a new Government.
Definition of who will benefit
Those with “highest care needs” is defined in two parts:
a) The person must fall into the Critical band as set out in current Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) Guidance
b) They must also require significant help with 4 or more activities of daily living (ADLs). Examples of ADLs include personal toilet, eating and drinking or managing urinary and bowel functions.
During the Second Reading, Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham MP advised that 170,00 people currently receive free personal care at home so would be unaffected by the change. 110,000 people currently pay and could benefit if they fit the definition of “highest care needs”. A further 130,000 people will benefit from extra six-week reablement programmes that are part of the proposals.
The role of reablement in receiving free care
Councils will have the function of deciding whether or not free personal care should be conditional on a person undergoing a period of intensive support or reablement for up to 6 weeks before a formal community care assessment. This reablement process will not be charged and may be a criterion for free care. This could include physiotherapy, occupational therapy and the installation of telecare or adaptations.
Will carers benefit?
We fear that the Bill as it currently is could exclude the option of the family receiving new support to improve the situation in which unpaid personal care is given and received. This could lead some cares to reasonably say, “if the new support is only on offer to my family if we replace my unpaid care with paid home care, then that’s what we’d like to do – I’ll stop caring”. Others would continue to care but feel unfairly treated.
Furthermore, a service provided to the cared-for to meet a need assessed of the carer, will not be eligible for free personal care at home for more than six weeks.
Our recommendations for inclusion in the Bill
1) That carers who currently provide personal care to a family member should be able to reduce the amount of care they provide, with the care-receiver able to take up free personal care instead.
2) That where a carer currently provides personal care to a family member and wishes to continue to do so, their family will nevertheless be able to take advantage of new free support, to an equivalent value of the new support that would be offered to the family if there was no carer, or if the carer decided to stop caring.
What you can do
Feel free to forward this briefing to your MP – details at: www.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/index.cfm
Contribute or start a discussion forum about how you feel about this Bill on www.carers.org
For more information, contact:
Gordon Conochie: gconochie@carers.org
Read my blog at: http://carersblog.wordpress.com/
Joint Policy & Parliamentary Officer
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Crossroads Care