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<p>The Department has been clear that local authorities are not required to charge
a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so.</p><br
/><p>We have produced a suite of implementation support documents around the new carers’
rights, one of which is <em>The Economic Case for Investment in Carers</em>, a short
factsheet for local authorities to use in considering whether to put in place a policy
of charging carers, setting out the evidence that charging would be a false economy.
This expands on the position set out in the Care Act statutory guidance, which at
paragraph 8.50 states that:</p><p /> <p>“Local authorities are not required to charge
a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so.
When deciding whether to charge, and in determining what an appropriate charge is,
a local authority should consider how it wishes to express the way it values carers
within its local community as partners in care, and recognise the significant contribution
carers make.”</p><p /> <p>The Care Act replicates the previous position where charging
carers was permissible. It would not have been appropriate to impose a blanket ban
on charging for carers services, because in some cases small charges are necessary
to the viability of services. However, the Care Act provides additional protection
to carers by making it clear that local authorities cannot charge carers for services
provided to the person being cared for. This means that carers may only be charged
for services provided directly to them.</p><br /><p>Most local authorities do not
routinely charge carers in recognition of the valuable contribution carers make to
their local communities, and the Carers Trust report confirms that this is still the
case. We will continue to make the case against routine charging of carers and to
monitor the situation closely through the implementation monitoring process set out
below.</p><br /><p>To support implementation of the reform programme, we have established
a joint Programme Management Office between the Department, Local Government Association
and Association of Directors of Adults Social Services. This unprecedented partnership
is driving collaborative working with the sector, influencing the local implementation
of these changes to support a consistent and coherent approach. This approach was
recognised by the National Audit Office as best practice and should be adopted by
other programmes.</p><br /><p>The programme includes a series of stocktakes of local
authority readiness and the latest, from June 2015, demonstrates an overall positive
picture on implementation:</p><p>- Councils’ confidence in their ability to deliver
the Care Act Reforms in 2015/16 remains high, with 99% very or fairly confident.</p><p>-
89% of councils say that they are ‘on track’ with their implementation. The remaining
11% report themselves as only slightly behind.</p>
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