Context

The Care Act places a clear duty on local authorities to make available assessments for those who in need of care and support. Assessments will need to be undertaken by those with assessment experience in order to identify individual needs and required outcomes.

Local authorities charging for this service must carry out a financial assessment to determine how much an individual can afford to pay towards the cost of their care and support. They must also establish personal ‘care accounts’ to monitor progress towards the cap on care cost contributions.

It is expected that there will be an increase in the number of assessments carried out by local authorities. Assessments must be delivered within the context of continuing financial constraints and its likely local authorities will explore a range of options to fulfil this obligation, including a tiered approach based on complexity.

The Care Act sets out a clear role for social workers and occupational therapists in:

• carrying out complex assessments which require co-ordination across statutory and community services (it emphasises a unique role for social workers in this area)
• providing support to other assessors where the individual may lack capacity
• supporting people to develop their care plans and enable them to engage confidently in the process
• developing expertise in knowing where additional community resources can contribute to the plan (e.g building wellbeing and emotional connections).

The Care Act brings broad, high-level requirements for local authority information and advice services. It introduces regulatory reform, which includes new ratings systems, centralised ‘comparison’ data and a new duty of candour.

It’s envisaged that social workers will help to ensure that people in need of care and support are able to access and interpret new sources of information, providing advice and guidance that enables them to understand how the care and support system works, what services are available locally, and how they can be accessed.

The social worker role will help to identify people with more complex needs at an early stage and provide access to the appropriate support. 

High quality, person-centred care that promotes dignity and focuses on the value of every person as an individual is central to the work of social workers. The Care Act aims to ensure that individual well-being will become the driving force behind care and support as well as implementing a general duty on local authorities for preventing, reducing or delaying the need for care and support.

The Care Act guidance recognises that social workers can bring a whole-person approach to prevention, including consideration of a person’s strengths, informal and community networks, as well as their needs and risks.

The College of social work produced a well-being and prevention briefing   to inform policy makers of the implications of the well- being and prevention principles in the  context of social work. 

The Care Act supports the transition for young people between children’s and adult care by giving local authorities powers to assess children, young carers and parent carers.

It links closely with the Children and Families Act 2014, as there will be a group of young people aged 18-25 who will be entitled to support though both pieces of legislation. The two Acts have the same emphasis on outcomes, personalisation, and the integration of services, therefore it is essential that the planning and implementation of both Acts is connected a local level.

The Care Act guidance recognises social workers as the most appropriate professionals to carry out transition assessments for young people with complex needs, who are transitioning into adult services.

Local authorities have a duty to carry out their care and support functions with the aim of integrating services with those provided by the NHS or other health-related services, such as housing. Local and other authorities which have care and support functions will be required to cooperate.

A general duty to cooperate is backed up by a more specific duty to cooperate in relation to individual cases. These provisions include a duty on local authorities to ensure cooperation between officers responsible for adult care and support, housing, children’s services and public health.

The core skills of social workers which help with maximising independence and choice, working alongside individuals and their families and positive risk- taking, mean that they will be equipped to take leadership roles within integrated service environments. 

Adult safeguarding has changed over recent years and there is a new programme of action in place following the Winterbourne View review, meaning there are new responsibilities for local authorities and other partners detailed in The Care Act.

One of the new requirements aims to establish "Safeguarding Adults Boards" in every local area, which will publish information on an annual basis to focus on what they have done to implement the findings of their safeguarding reviews and why they have declined to implement other findings.

On a practice level, the Care Act expects that social workers will be required to supervise safeguarding enquiries, including more complex cases such as suspected abuse or neglect within the family.

It also anticipates that social workers (with occupational therapists or other appropriately qualified social care professionals) will act as the lead workers in cases where deprivation of liberty safeguards (DOLs) may be needed. 

The College of Social Work is currently undertaking work around the role of social workers in the context of mental health. Refer to their website for further updates.