The majority of the Social Services Act 2011, which provides a clear, cohesive and modern framework for the delivery of social care services, will come in to force on 1 December.
As well as bringing in the new framework, the Act repeals the National Assistance Act, which dates from 1951 and was the most recent piece of overarching legislation to cover social care services.
The 2011 Act provides:
• clarity to service users on their eligibility for social care services
• clarity to the Department on its duty to assess need
• greater flexibility for the Department in how it can meet need
• clarity on the duties and powers of the Department in relation to providing information and advice, assessment, and service provision.
The changes will ensure that people are assessed and services are provided according to their needs for those services as opposed to providing services based on a defined age, disability or illness.
The Minister for Health and Social Care, Howard Quayle MHK, said: "The Department's social care services play a vital role supporting our Island's vulnerable children, families and adults. With people living longer demand for these services will continue to grow. The Act creates much greater clarity and will ensure equity and transparency in the provision of social care services, whilst recognising that resources are limited and services need to be provided based on need."
Certain elements of the Act, such as Part 3 of the Act, which relates to carers support, will not come in to force on 1 December. This represents a new duty for the Department to undertake carers assessments and will be implemented via a second Appointed Day Order in early 2015. The short delay is to allow a pilot of carers assessments to be undertaken in partnership with Crossroads Care to ensure the process works efficiently and to gauge demand so that the Department can ensure adequate resources are in place.
In addition, Tynwald has approved two sets of Regulations under the Act, which will also come into operation from 1 December 2014.
The Act places a duty on the Department to assess those eligible for social care services and then enables the Department to charge for the provision of services to meet that assessed need. These services include day centres and residential care for adults with learning disabilities (e.g. Eastcliffe Resource Centre and community homes) and also for older people (e.g. Thie Meanagh and the Gansey Unit at Southlands), as well as respite care (e.g. Cummal Mooar and Reayrt ny Baie).
The Adult Social Care Services (Charges) Regulations are required to set out in legislation the existing charges for all adult social care services directly provided by the Department.
Under the Act there will be a new Independent Review Body to review complaints about the Department's decision to provide, or secure the provision of social care services under the Act. The Review Body will only review a decision once a complainant has exhausted all internal complaints procedures established by the Department. The Social Services Independent Review Body Regulations provide further details about the Review Body including who can be members, what the Review Body can do, and following a review of a complaint what action they can take.
