Range of types of support

As with housing, support providers should also be accompanied by a Statement of Purpose, so that particular types of support can be suited to individual needs and wishes. It could follow the Active Support model and should be proactive in helping people to lead independent and person centred lives.

Active Support

Working with people to enable them to take part in all the activities of everyday life, no
matter how disabled they are. Assisting people to take part in activities in the home and outside it, helps to promote personal growth and development, new relationships and increasing social inclusion and increasing choice and control over one’s life.

Team support

A small team provided for an individual or a small group for up to twenty-four hours a day.

Domiciliary care

Where support staff come into the home to help with a wide range of particular tasks such
as preparing budgets, bathing according to need. It can include such things as helping, prompting and encouraging people to do tasks as independently as possible.

Targeted support

Where an agency provides support, sharing a larger team of support workers across a number of clients or households instead of a smaller team dedicated to an individualor to a small group. Targeted support can create greater opportunities for independence.

Peer and volunteer support

This sort of support is to be found in the Keyring model. On an informal level all tenants agree to support one another as part of the tenancy agreement. This is often rather like the support provided by families and other informal carers or it can also be paid for in cash or in kind, such as accommodation. It needs to be recognised andincluded in the individual’s care plan.

Self-directed support

Self-directed Support is a 7-stage model of planning an individual’s support package to help them achieve control over their own lifestyle. It was developed by the ‘In Control’ Project. The aim is to shift the power and control of services directly to disabled people so that they can become active citizens. The individual is at the centre, their self-assessed needs entitling them to a level of resource necessary for them to engage their own support. The resource is directly linked to the level of need in an open and transparent way and the services they receive are negotiated between themselves and any professional or worker they choose to use.

The 7-stages of Self-Directed support are:

  • Self Assessment (with or without support as appropriate)
  • Plan Support
  • Agree the Plan
  • Manage the Individual Budget
  • Organise Support
  • Live Life
  • Review and Learn

Living with a support tenant/Supported lodging

Imaginative living arrangements can be developed to suit individual needs and to give
someone else a home. One model is having a support tenant living with one or two people with learning disabilities, sharing tasks and bills, The support tenant does not pay rent and in return for a monthly payment, with the care provider to carry out certain household duties.

Similar to this is the supported lodging model for people with higher support needs who wish to live as tenants or lodgers in the houses of the people who support them.

Transitional flexible support

This is a scheme where people living in independent housing, probably near to others,
can ask for shared, flexible support only when they need it to a maximum of 37 hours a
week. This is a specifically transitional form of support to encourage people towards greaterindependence

Assistive technology, environmental control and telecare

The latest technology can enable people with learning disabilities to do more and to become more independent. Authorities should work together with the individual, the carers, service providers, technology specialists and housing associations to provide accommodation fitted with a range of suitable equipment to support maximum independence. Linking sensors to a monitoring centre can provide emergency cover and can help people to be both safe and independent. Investment in sensors and telecare
equipment can help with the effective use of staff resources. Equipment maintenance and
replacement costs can be included in the rent or support package. The use of assistive technology can avoid unnecessary, expensive and intrusive staff support being required.

Special Needs Housing Grant

Special adaptations such as hoists, soundproofing or robust materials necessary for people with physical disability or challenging behaviour can be provided by applying for
WAG’s Special Needs Housing Grant. This requires planning three years ahead but the
adaptation of existing property or new build can be funded.

The role of the community support team

In order to plan for a more successful move, when difficulties are being experienced or
when more help is needed in the home and/or community, the Community Support Team may be involved. A range of health professionals or social workers may come into the home, day service or other community setting to assess needs and to provide the appropriate support required. This support could be around a range of things such as communication skills, daily living skills, mobility, exercise, healthy eating etc.. The support may involve working directly with adults with learning disabilities themselves or through providing training or advice to their carers, support staff and other organisations to enable people to use their skills.

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Carers - More Information

Carers Hub

Carers Hub

Carers Hub

Throughout Cardiff there are many community Hubs where you can get a wide range of support and advice.

 

There is a Carers' specific Hub in the Vale as well that services carers from both counties

The Carers Trust are based there and you can get a wide range of information and support on issues that affect carers.

For more details look here

 

Financial Support

Financial Support

Carers and Pension

Caring for someone can have a devastating impact on Carers’ longer term pension and Carers need to be aware of their pensions as a result. To be eligible to receive a full basic State Pension, a person must have made a certain amount of National Insurance (NI) contributions towards it throughout their working life. If a person is unable to do this because they are caring for children or for a disabled, ill or frail adult, then the state will credit their contributions. However, this only happens if they claim the right benefits and take the right action.

For more information visit:

www.carersuk.org/Information/Caringforyourpension


For advice and information on all aspects of caring contact:

Carers UK’s Adviceline on:
freephone 0808 808 7777 (Wednesdays and Thursdays 10am-12pm and 2pm - 4pm) or
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Other financial support

Looking after Someone, a complete guide to carers’ rights and benefits, is available from:

Carers UK Tel: 020 7378 4999

Carers UK’s helpline - speak to an advisor for a full benefits check by ringing the

Helpline on 0808 808 7777

Age Cymru has a huge amount of information on financial support for older people.

Call their free helpline on 08000 223444 or visit
www.ageuk.org.uk/cymru/money-matters

The Pensions Advisory Service is an independent non-profit organisation that provides free information, advice and guidance on the whole spectrum of pensions, including state, company, personal and stakeholder schemes.

Call 0845 601 2923 or
visit www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk

Directgov is an excellent online source of information on benefits and pensions

www.direct.gov.uk/pensions

Carers Direct also provides information on carers’ pensions and other aspects of caring:

www.nhs.uk/CarersDirect

Contact a Family Specialist Benefit Adviser

Tel: 0808 808 3555

Insight app - a great way to stay in touch and active

Insight app - a great way to stay in touch and active

The Innovate Trust has developed an easy to use app for you to download for free,

It allows families to keep in touch and their loved ones to participate in a wide range of activities and workshops

Legislation

Legislation

Disabled Persons (Services Consultation & Representation) Act 1986 section 8

This requires that, during an assessment of a disabled person, the ability of carers who provide substantial amount of care on a regular basis is taken into account.

Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995

This Act requires the social services authority (if so requested) to carry out a separate assessment of the carer (a “Carers’s assessment”) at the same time as it assesses the person for whom the care is provided.

The act applies both to adult and young carers regardless of the age of the person for whom they provide care.

It defines the carer as an individual who provides or intends to provide a substantial amount of care on a regular basis. For the purposes of the
Act the term carer includes people who may or may not be a relative, and who may or may not be living with the person for whom they are caring. The Act excludes volunteers who provide care as part of their work for voluntary organisations and anyone who is providing care by virtue of a contract of employment or any other contract. This would include anyone who is providing personal assistance for payment, either in cash or in kind.

Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000

This Act gives carers a ‘right’ to a carer’s assessment if they are aged over 16 years old and are providing or intending to provide regular and substantial care for someone aged over 18 years. Carers are entitled to an assessment even when the person they care for refuses to have an assessment or having had an assessment refuses to accept services.

It also includes the right for parents of children with disabilities to request an assessment

It provides the power to provide services for carers in their own right, following an assessment of their needs as well as the power to charge for those services.

The act introduced Direct Payments (i.e. cash instead of care) to parent carers, carers for their own services and young disabled people aged 16 and 17 years.

The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004

This places a duty on social care to inform carers of their right to request a carer’s assessment. It also gives the provision for a local authority to
ask another statutory authority or body (such as housing, health, education and other local authorities) to assist in planning the provision of services to carers or to provide services that may enhance the carer’s ability to provide care. The other authority must give the request due consideration.

In relation to work, training education and leisure the Act amends both the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 and the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 by ensuring that carer’s assessments must include consideration of whether carers work, or wish to work, and are undertaking or wish to undertake, education, training or any leisure activity.

Work and Families Act 2006

The Work and Families legislation came in 2006, and allows carers of adults the same right to request flexible working as carers of children. Employers do not have to agree to the request, but must make a good business case if refused.

The Children and Young Persons Act 2008

This requires local authorities to make adequate arrangements for short break provision for Disabled Children. In addition the Welsh Assembly Government has a range of powers to inspect, regulate and issue statutory guidance in respect of local authority services under the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, the Care Standards Act 2000 and the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. It also has powers to direct the NHS under the National Health Services (Wales) Act 2006.

Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure

In January 2012 the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010 came into force. This legislation places a duty on the Local Health Boards to lead on preparing and implementing a carer’s information and consultation strategy. For Cardiff and the Vale the lead health Board is the University Health Board (UHB) who working in partnership with several stakeholders including, Vale Council, Cardiff Council, Vale Council for Voluntary Services (VCVS), Cardiff’s
Third Sector Council (C3SC), Third Sector representatives, Carers representatives and additional UHB services have began this work. At current a working group made up of the above have helped the UHB produce a draft outline of the strategy and what will be included.

Strategies will:

  • set out how information and guidance will be provided to carers, that will assist them in carrying out their caring role effectively; and
  • set out how carers will be consulted and involved in decisions affecting them and those they care for.

LHBs are designated as the ‘lead authority’ in the Regulations. They will be required to lead the work to develop and implement the Strategies, working in partnership with Social Services.

‘Carers and their rights: the law relating to carers’, published by Carers UK by Professor Luke Clements.
www.carersuk.org/professionals/order-publications

This fifth edition includes updates based on a number of statutory and case law developments since the last edition, implementation of the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 and the Work and Families Act 2006, the impact of the Equality Act 2010 and coincides with the first tangible impacts of the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010.

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