Care Act Easement – Live Q&A, 30th April 7pm. Very Important if you are in receipt of social care services

Here are the joining links:

YouTube

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Sophie Chester-Glyn, who runs CoProduce Care, will mine Belinda’s expertise to explore what the Care Act Easements might mean for members of the public, now that 6 councils have formally moved into operating under a version of the Care Act that some would call Care Act ‘Lite’. Belinda wouldn’t even go THAT far, not even on a good day.

That’s Solihull, Birmingham, Sunderland, Staffordshire, Middlesbrough and Warwickshire – for those who might not have seen those announcements on the internet.

If you rely on social services for care or support, adoption of the Coronavirus Act easements to the Care Act by your local council will inevitably affect the legal duties that your services depend upon – and make legal challenge and redress for injustice, much harder to achieve.

The impact might be that

• you’re not reviewed, or you are deferred for review, even though your situation in the virus period is very different from what it usually is…
• or you might get SOME of your needs met, but not others, even though your situation hasn’t actually changed: this might be because the staffing crisis in the sector means that service allocations have to be redistributed to others.
• or the council might say you can’t have your needs met at all, on the basis that although that’ll be tough, it won’t be bad enough to be a breach of your human rights. OR your carer’s human rights, either!
• on the upside, you might get permission to pay your close relatives out of your direct payment, when it’s never been regarded as ‘necessary’ before…or find yourself offered a vision of personalisation when there was actually some flexibility allowed, within care packages and direct payments!

CASCAIDr’s view is that people really need to know what to SAY and DO, if faced with a decision from the council that is intolerable to the person or their family.

Some of the usual legal tools that advocates would normally use to challenge decisions just won’t BE there, if a council is operating under the easements.

This Livestream event isn’t a webinar, so you don’t need to register. It’s an online Q and A session, and there’s no fee.

Since CASCAIDr needs to survive the lockdown, if it’s ever going to be able to go back to its usual work, we will be asking for donations of whatever anyone can manage.

Click here for a quick burst of Belinda flagging up this event on video.

Do please join us with your questions at 7pm, Thursday 30th April – we’ll be done before the Clap, we promise. See you Thursday night, we hope!

Finally, please make the most of the attached document, which is a free briefing for anyone worried about what’s going on in care homes during the Coronavirus crisis – 10 things that all Care Home Managers ought to know.

Other services from CASCAIDr

• In the background, we’re continuing to add to our categorised stock of curated LGSCO reports here– in which our expert writing team explains the legal principles driving the Ombudsman’s findings of fault. These matter, even if the LGSCO remains shut, and even if Care Act duties are suspended – because the LGSCO findings are often public law and Human Rights based and still relevant to the exercise of mere powers.
• We’re running a page for members of the public to use for reporting GOOD practice and policies as they emerge from Councils and Care Trusts – you can find out about that, here.
• Our Trading Company is delivering top-notch training by webinar/webinar recordings – to councils’ and Care Trusts’ staff. All net income goes to support the charity, of course. The training content covers for councils how to do what they now must do, as lawfully as possible, with regard to probably the most difficult conversations – and decision-making – that those practitioners and managers have ever had to face … so if you’re a front line worker a team manager or a senior manager, and want that training, please mention it to your Head of Service now and get in touch at belinda@cascaidr.org.uk

We do all of this in the hope of donations,

however small.

Please DONATE via https://bit.ly/2WCNHhZ