Explains your rights to social care, and how this differs from healthcare. Includes information on eligibility, needs assessments, financial assessments, and how local authorities may meet your needs.
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Local authorities consider you to be a 'carer' if you are an adult who provides, or intends to provide, care for another adult who needs it. However, they will not usually consider you a carer if the caring you do is part of your job (either paid work or voluntary work, such as for a charity).
If you're a carer, you may be entitled to social care support under the Care Act 2014 (in England) or the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 (in Wales).
The law for carers is similar to other adults, in that:
If it appears that you may have needs for support now, or in the future, then your local authority must carry out a carer's assessment.
(See our pages on coping when supporting someone else for more general information about being a carer, including further options for support.)
A carer's assessment is similar to a needs assessment. It will look at:
To be eligible for support in England, you must show that:
To be eligible for support in Wales, you must show that:
If you're assessed as having eligible needs for support, then the local authority will have a duty to meet your needs if the person you're caring for is ordinarily resident in the local authority's area.
The local authority must prepare a support plan, which covers the same ground as an adult's care and support plan and can be reviewed in the same way.
This is the law which sets out the local authorities’ duties in relation to assessing people’s needs and their eligibility for care and support (adult social care), including carers who need support. It applies in England only.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis is the law that governs social care in Wales. It sets out the local authorities’ duties in relation to assessing people’s needs and their eligibility for care and support (child and adult social care), including carers who need support.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis information was published in February 2018.
This page is currently under review. All content was accurate when published.
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