The amount of comment and supporting information on The Care Act 2014, which will be implemented in April, as new or revised guidance comes into force, is mushrooming rapidly.
We bring to your attention two resources on the Act, with very different origins:
- The SCIE (social care institute for excellence) is a charity which describes itself as an ‘improvement support agency’. It does however receive funding from the Department of Health and other agencies, which it uses develop a range of resources to help improve the knowledge, skills and practice of care staff and commissioners.
The SCIE has now published an extensive range of resources on the Care Act. If you don’t know about the Care Act,or are not sure what it covers (which includes most of us), this index page may be a good place to start http://www.scie.org.uk/care-act-2014/index There is here a 6-minute long introductory video (see below), which might be an easy way in to the subject. After that, feel free to explore, always bearing in mind that this is a resource aimed primarily at ‘professionals’ rather than carers.
- Peter Beresford is professor of social policy at Brunel University and chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people’s and service users’ organisation and network. He is a regular columnist in the Guardian, writing on learning disability and social care issues.
On January 15th, the Guardian published a feature article by Beresford entitled ‘How to revive social care after a cataclysmic year’. The cataclysmic year was 2014, and Beresford considered whether the Care Act could contribute to any revival in 2015. He was pessimistic, describing the Care Act as ‘rhetoric-ridden but weak and ambiguous’. Other commentators, particularly those concerned with learning disability and the law, are beginning to offer their analyses of the Care Act, e.g. Lucy Series on the Small Places blog.
So you have there two sides of the coin.>
We will bring you more on the Care Act in the coming weeks and and months!
PS. I am still wondering where that strapline “Beyond compliance – towards excellence” came from, and whether in future years we will be beating providers around the head with it, if it turns out to be doublespeak.