Support to councils for meeting Care Act requirements on Information & Advice provision

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A new Guide published today will help councils meet the April 2015 deadline to improve the information about support services available in their local communities - a requirement under the new Care Act.

Information, Advice & Brokerage: Shaping the Future, Gearing Up & Seeing the Benefits shows councils how to improve the way people find out about care services and get the best in place to meet their needs.

The Guide has been developed with six local authorities to highlight the common challenges each has faced, what they have done in practice to overcome them and the early benefits people in their areas are seeing.

The Guide has been split into three parts: Shaping the Future which looks at the exact Care Act requirements and some of the strategies needed to meet those changes; Gearing up for change which sets out what has been tried and learned across England; and Seeing the Benefits which looks at how to measure success.

TLAP Co-Chairs Marjory Broughton and Clenton Farquharson, and representatives of the National Co-production Advisory Group, who were involved in producing this work, said:

"For people who use support, information is power. Its critical councils and those they work with get this right so people, carers and families can make the best decisions about their care based on what is most important in their lives."

Chair of TLAP's Information & Advice Steering Group, and Social Care Institute for Excellence Chief Executive Tony Hunter said:

"All people, whether they receive council support or pay for it themselves, need up-to-date and reliable information about what is available in their local area. Councils will need to work in partnership with the information providers in their local communities to ensure this happens and to meet their Care Act obligations."

TLAP Director Sam Bennett said:

"Information and advice is clearly a critical building block for choice and control and you can't have a care and support system that is truly empowering without people being able to understand and navigate it well. This Guide will be a useful stepping stone to making those changes."

Download the Guide in its three parts:

www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Shapingthefuture

www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Gearingupforchange

www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Seeingthebenefits

The Guide was commissioned by Department of Health in partnership with the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to support local government in implementing the Care Act 2014 and overseen by a steering group including representatives from Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Age UK, Carers Trust, Department of Health, Independent Age, Local Government Association, National Coproduction Advisory Group, Royal College of General Practitioners, SCOPE and Voiceability.

Visit the 'Implementing your programme' pages on www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform to see all the learning and development to support implementation across the breadth of the reforms.

A follow up tool which provides a blueprint for Information and Advice services will be launched by TLAP shortly.