The Care and Support (Children’s Carers) Regulations 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 62(1) of the Care Act 2014 (“the Act”) provides a power for local authorities in England to meet the support needs of the carer of a child in circumstances where the authority has carried out an assessment of the carer’s needs under section 60 in advance of the child becoming 18. These Regulations make provision in connection with the exercise of that power.

Regulation 2 provides for provisions of Part 1 of the Act, together with specified regulations made under that Part, to apply with modifications to the local authority’s exercise of its power under section 62(1) of the Act, as they would apply to the local authority’s exercise of the power under section 20(6) to meet the support needs of a carer. Thus, where provisions of Part 1 of the Act do not apply to the exercise of the power under section 20(6), they would not apply to the exercise of the power under section 62(1). By way of example, sections 15, 16, 28, 29, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 47 do not apply because they relate to an adult with needs for care and support, and sections 13, 42 to 46 and 53 to 57 do not apply because they do not specifically apply to the exercise of the power under section 20(6). Certain provisions of Part 1, such as sections 1, 3 and 7 already apply because they apply to the exercise of any function under Part 1 of the Act.

Regulation 2(2) excludes some provisions within Part 1 which otherwise would apply to the exercise of the power under section 62(1).

Regulation 3 prohibits a local authority, in exercising the power under section 62(1) of the Act, from meeting the needs of the child’s carer by providing care and support to the child in question. As a result, for example, section 14(3) (prohibition on charging carers for meeting their needs by providing care and support to the person cared for) does not apply to the exercise of the power under section 62(1).

Regulations 4 to 14 make modifications to certain provisions of Part 1 and regulations under that Part which are applied to the exercise of the power under section 62(1) by regulation 2, in order to ensure that, in their application to the exercise of that power, they have the correct effect.

Some of these modifications make straightforward substitutions of references to “section 62(1)” or to a “child’s carer”.

The more complex modifications are explained below.

Regulation 10(c) modifies section 25 of the Act to ensure that there is no requirement for a support plan prepared under section 24 to specify whether the child’s carer’s needs meet the local authority’s eligibility criteria. This is because the exercise of the power under section 62(1) is not conditional upon needs meeting eligibility criteria.

Regulation 11(h) modifies section 27 of the Act to ensure that where, on the review of a support plan for a child’s carer, it transpires that circumstances have changed, a child’s carer’s assessment and financial assessment must be carried out if the person being cared for is still a child (that is to say still under 18). Section 27(4) of the Act provides that a carer’s assessment, financial assessment and eligibility determination should be carried out if the person being cared for is no longer a child (that is to say 18 or over).

A separate impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations. These Regulations are part of a package of legislative measures and the relevant impact assessment can be requested via [e-mail] or Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2NS and is available online at http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health.