Centre for Policy on Ageing



A legal tangle? — [lack of specific legislation to support personalisation]
Author(s)	Ed Mitchell
Journal title	Community Care, issue 1779, 16 July 2009
Pages	pp 26-27
Source	www.communitycare.co.uk
Keywords	Services ; Community care ; Finance [care] ; Law ; Social policy.
Annotation	A lack of specific legislation to support personalisation means that local authorities are having to be creative in order to implement the policy. Currently, Section 51 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 states that direct payments may only be made to a client who "consents" to them, thus making them unavailable to those without mental capacity. The Department of Health (DH) has consulted on draft regulations that would allow payments to be made to third parties. Another impediment to the policy is the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, which requires a local authority social worker to assess an individual's care needs; this makes self-assessment not legally possible. If enacted, the Welfare Reform Bill would allow regulations to be made that would give disabled people more control over the services they receive. The article refers to the DH personalisation guidance (LAC 2008(1)), suggestions in which are also not fully achievable. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-090722201 A
Classmark	I: PA: QC: VR: TM2 *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.