Revisions to a Care and Support or Support Plan
1. Revising the Care and Support Plan
Following a review, the Local Authority may revise a Care and Support Plan, but when doing so it must have regard to:
- The impact on the person's individual Wellbeing;
- The outcomes that the person wishes to achieve in day-to-day life; and
- Whether, and to what extent, the provision of the proposed Care and Support could contribute to meeting the outcomes.
2. Revising the Carer's Support Plan
Following a review the Local Authority may revise a carer's Support Plan, but when doing so it must have regard to:
- Whether the carer is able, and likely to continue to be able, to provide Care and Support to the person;
- Whether the carer is willing, and likely to continue to be willing, to provide Care and Support to the person;
- The impact on the carer's individual Wellbeing;
- The outcomes that the carer wishes to achieve in day-to-day life;
- Whether, and to what extent, the provision of the proposed Support could contribute to meeting the outcomes;
- Whether the carer works, or wishes to work; and
- 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:
- The person to whom the plan relates;
- Any carer that the person has;
- Anyone else that the person asks the Local Authority to involve; and
- 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:
- The carer to whom the plan relates;
- 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:
- The times that a service is provided may need to be altered to better support the person to achieve a Wellbeing outcome;
- 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:
- Understands all of the person's/carer’s needs and the impact that the change in need has had holistically;
- Understands the impact of the change on the person's/carer’s Wellbeing (and can thus fulfil its duty to promote Wellbeing);
- Provides a personal budget that is sufficient to meet the needs; and
- Plans and agree with the person/carer how best to meet needs.
For information about the Assessment process see Assessing Needs.
For information about the Care and Support Planning process see Meeting Needs.