Clause 3 - Duty to inform
Carers (Equal Opportunities) Bill
3:15 pm
Dr Stephen Ladyman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; South Thanet, Labour)
The clause brings us to an important matter. Information is vital if people are to get the support that they need; the theme was raised frequently, and in great detail, on Second Reading by hon. Members on both sides of the House.
We as a Government place considerable emphasis on ensuring that everyone receives the rights and benefits to which they are entitled. Assessments are carers' gateway to support and services, but despite the abundance of best practice information and guidance for people working with carers, some carers remain unaware of their rights.
It is therefore appropriate that the Bill ensures that the few who do not routinely inform carers of their rights should now follow the practice of the majority who do. That will ensure that carers receive information about their rights in a more consistent way and at an appropriate time. Rather than creating a freestanding provision, however, it would be more appropriate to amend the existing legislation on carers. The outcome will be updated legislation in which all the rights relating to carers assessments can be found.
New clause 1 therefore introduces new provisions into the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 and the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000. Broadly speaking, the proposed changes will require councils to inform carers who have not requested an assessment, but who appear to be entitled to one under those Acts, of their entitlement.
The new clause amends section 1 of 1995 Act so that a local authority that carries out an assessment of the person cared for and finds that the carer may be
entitled to a carers assessment must inform the carer of his right. The authority would then have to inform him of that right before deciding what services the person cared for should receive.
The new clause also amends the 2000 Act. Where it appears to a local authority that it may be required to undertake a carers assessment if asked to do so by the carer, it should inform the carer that he may be entitled to an assessment. However, there would be no such requirement if the authority had already informed him of his rights or carried out a carers assessment under the 2000 Act or the Community Care (Delayed Discharges) Act 2003.
The new clause is the most effective way of ensuring that carers are informed of their rights by word of mouth, via a leaflet and so on. Guidance published under the 1995 and 2000 Acts states that carers should be offered information in that way. On that basis, I hope that the Committee will agree that clause 3 should not stand part of the Bill and that it will accept new clause 1.