Legal Rights for Carers

As a result of various Acts of Parliament carers' rights have been legally established:

• The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 introduced the right to a carer's assessment.
• The Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 extended these rights to include the right to support services and for these services to be made available with direct payments and vouchers.
• The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 promotes more opportunities for carers in areas such as work, leisure and studying. It places a duty on local authorities to ensure that all carers know that they are entitled to an assessment of their needs and to consider a carer's outside interests when carrying out an assessment.
• The Children Act 1989 gives young carers (under the age of 18) of a disabled parent, the right to be regarded as 'children in need'.
• The Mental Health Act 1983 gives carers (if they are the nearest relative) of people with a mental health problem the right to ask for an assessment of the person they are caring for.
• The Civil Partnership Act 2004 enables same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. Couples who form a civil partnership will have a new legal status, that of 'civil partner'. Civil partners who are carers will therefore have greater rights in areas such as welfare benefits.

You can find more detailed information about these and other Acts from the following:

Directgov
www.direct.gov.uk

This government website includes sections for disabled people and carers.

The Office of Public Sector Information
www.opsi.gov.uk

The Office of Public Sector Information provides online access to UK legislation. You can also purchase all parliamentary publications from the Stationery Office (Tel: 08760 600 5522).

Assessments for the Cared for Person

If the person you care for needs help to manage at home, assistance may be available from Social Services. This is called Community Care. Social Services has a legal duty to assess the needs of children and adults who are sick and disabled if they think a person may need community care services. These assessments will be conducted by a care manager or social worker and will take place in the home of the cared for person. If the assessment shows that help is needed, Social Services should arrange for this help to be provided, either from their own department or elsewhere.

Carer's Assessments

Carers have a legal right to an assessment of their own needs. If you are over 16 and caring for someone for over 35 hours a week, who is eligible for community care services, you are entitled to request a Carer's Assessment from Social Services. If the Carer's Assessment shows that help is needed, Social Services can provide a carers' service such as a regular break from caring. This should be detailed in a Care Plan. If you are not happy with what has been decided you can challenge this via the Social Services complaints system (see Complaints). If you live in a different area from the person you care for, it will be the cared for person's local authority, not yours, that will be responsible for undertaking a carer's assessment and providing a carers service. If the person you are caring for is in hospital, you should make your request for a carer's assessment to the hospital staff.

Carers UK
Tel: 0808 808 7777                   www.carersuk.org.uk

Carers UK publishes a range of free guides for carers, including How Do I Get Help? Carer's Assessments Made Clear.

Contact a Family (CaF)
Tel: 0808 808 3555                   www.cafamily.org.uk

CaF publishes a range of free factsheets for parent carers, including A Guide to Assessments and Services in England and Wales .

Complaints

If it becomes necessary to make a formal complaint, you should obtain a copy of the service or organisation's complaints procedure beforehand, so that you know what to expect, who to contact and the time limits within which you can complain. Remember to keep copies of all correspondence and to make a note of all phone calls. Complaining can be a difficult process, so we have listed organisations at the end of this section who can act as advocates or advise you of your rights.  

National Health Service (NHS) Complaints

If your complaint is about health services, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) will try and help to resolve your issues before it becomes necessary to make a formal complaint. See How To Find Out About Health Care Services for details of local PALS offices. You can also seek the help of a conciliator from Croydon Primary Care Trust (PCT) who can help both sides to talk through the complaint. If this has not helped resolve your concerns you will need to make a formal complaint to the Complaints Team at Croydon Primary Care Trust (Tel: 020 8274 6148).

If you are unhappy with the response to your complaint, you can ask for an independent review of your case by the Healthcare Commission (Tel: 0845 601 3012 or go to www.healthcarecommission.org.uk). If this request is agreed a Review Panel, chaired by an independent person, will investigate and report on your complaint. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of an independent review, or your request for a review is turned down, you can ask the Health Service Ombudsman to investigate your case (Tel: 0845 015 4033 or go to www.ombudsman.org.uk).  

Social Services Complaints

You can make a complaint about any aspect of the services provided by Croydon Social Services, whether it concerns the quality of the service or a refusal of entitlement to support. To make a complaint contact Croydon Council on 020 8726 6000 and request a complaint form.  

If your complaint has not been satisfactorily resolved, you can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman (Tel: 0845 602 1983 or go to www.lgo.org.uk). The ombudsman can only investigate complaints where there has been 'maladministration' such as unreasonable delay, or failure to follow proper procedures. You can also write to the High Court for a Judicial Review if you think Croydon Social Services have acted unlawfully. You will need expert legal advice before taking this action (see Legal Advice).

The Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills are currently reviewing the policy and procedure for complaining about social care services. Further information about planned changes can be found on the Commission for Social Care Inspection website at www.csci.org.uk or call 020 8256 6430.

Voluntary or Community Organisation Complaints

Most voluntary or community organisations will have a complaints procedure, although this is not a legal requirement. If the organisation is local to you, they will probably have a Management Committee, in which case you can write to the Chairperson with your complaint. If the organisation is a branch of a national charity, you can write to the Chief Executive with your concerns.