Revisions to a Care and Support or Support Plan

1. Revising the Care and Support Plan

Important to know
The review is the mechanism by which the need for a revision is identified. Therefore, the Care and Support Plan should never be revised unless a review has taken place.

Following a review, the Local Authority may revise a Care and Support Plan, but when doing so it must have regard to:

  1. The impact on the person's individual Wellbeing;
  2. The outcomes that the person wishes to achieve in day-to-day life; and
  3. Whether, and to what extent, the provision of the proposed Care and Support could contribute to meeting the outcomes.
Important to know
Whenever a revision is made to a Care and Support Plan, consideration should be given as to the need to revise any relevant Carer's Support Plan.

2. Revising the Carer's Support Plan

Important to know
The review is the mechanism by which the need for a revision is identified. Therefore, the Support Plan should never be revised unless a review has taken place.

Following a review the Local Authority may revise a carer's Support Plan, but when doing so it must have regard to:

  1. Whether the carer is able, and likely to continue to be able, to provide Care and Support to the person;
  2. Whether the carer is willing, and likely to continue to be willing, to provide Care and Support to the person;
  3. The impact on the carer's individual Wellbeing;
  4. The outcomes that the carer wishes to achieve in day-to-day life;
  5. Whether, and to what extent, the provision of the proposed Support could contribute to meeting the outcomes;
  6. Whether the carer works, or wishes to work; and
  7. Whether the carer is participating in or wishes to participate in education, training or recreation.

3. Who to involve in the Revision of the Plan

Any revision of a Care and Support Plan must involve:

  1. The person to whom the plan relates;
  2. Any carer that the person has;
  3. Anyone else that the person asks the Local Authority to involve; and
  4. Where the person lacks capacity, any other person who appears to the Local Authority to be interested in the person's welfare.

Any revision of a carers Support Plan must involve:

  1. The carer to whom the plan relates;
  2. Anyone else that the carer asks the Local Authority to involve.

4. General Revisions

A general revision occurs when a change to the Care and Support/Support Plan is required but there is no change in the person's/carer’s needs. For example:

  1. The times that a service is provided may need to be altered to better support the person to achieve a Wellbeing outcome;
  2. The method for achieving respite may change from respite in a residential care to respite at home.

General revisions are often small, sometimes temporary and can be accommodated within the existing personal budget.

5. Revising a Care and Support Plan/Support Plan because of a change in Need

One of the possible outcomes of review is that the Care and Support Plan/Support Plan needs to be revised because there has been a change in the person/carer's needs. When this occurs, the Local Authority must (wherever possible) work through relevant care and support processes (including reassessment, eligibility determination, financial assessment and Care and Support/Support planning). This is to ensure that the Local Authority continues to fulfil its duty to meet eligible needs and that it:

  1. Understands all of the person's/carer’s needs and the impact that the change in need has had holistically;
  2. Understands the impact of the change on the person's/carer’s Wellbeing (and can thus fulfil its duty to promote Wellbeing);
  3. Provides a personal budget that is sufficient to meet the needs; and
  4. Plans and agree with the person/carer how best to meet needs.
Important to know
The assessment process following a review should not start from the beginning but use and build upon what is already known about the person/carer from previous assessments and recordings.

For information about the Assessment process see Assessing Needs.

For information about the Care and Support Planning process see Meeting Needs.