This short guide highlights some of the relevant parts of the Care Act for physical activity and sport.
It is produced by Get Yourself Active.
Contents
What is the care act?
The Care Act is a piece of legislation that places many duties on local authorities to take steps to ensure that people have the right advice, information and choices about how to meet their care and support needs. You can read it in full on the UK government website.
The legislation means that the care and support systems should be built so that any Disabled individuals can have more control over how they live their life. The purpose of the Care & Support Statutory Guidance is ‘to help people achieve the outcomes that matter to them in their life’.
As you can imagine, the Care Act is a long document and can be difficult to make sense of. This guide highlights some of the relevant parts of the Care Act for physical activity and sport.
The wellbeing principle
Under the care act, local authorities have to consider the effects of any decisions they make about support on the wellbeing of that individual, and you are involved in this process too.
It is about you having the power to decide how best to meet your own needs and make a judgment on what is best for your wellbeing.
The full range of your needs will be assessed, and you will be involved in drafting your support plan to meet your own identified outcomes. Your personal budget will then be used to help you meet these outcomes.
You have the right to challenge the local authority on how your needs have been assessed and how your support plan has been put together using the Care Act.
Being flexible and innovative
The Care Act states that ‘direct payment is designed to be used flexibly and innovatively, and there should be no unreasonable restriction placed on the use of the payments, as long as it is being used to meet eligible care and support needs’.
One method you might want to improve independence and value for money is pooling your budget. You could share resources by sharing your budget with another friend (or group of friends who are direct payments recipients) with whom you have agreed goals.
Pressures on local authority budgets and different interpretations of the Care Act across local authorities have made it harder to speak up for your rights.
