Community Care & Health (Scotland) Act 2002
The Community Care & Health (Scotland) Act 2002 has delivered some major improvements in community care services, including free nursing and personal care.
Click here for the press release on the passing of the Community Care and Health Bill by the Scottish Parliament.
Click here for the Act in full.
The Act has improved care services by legislating to:
- provide free nursing and personal care from July 2002 in line with the conclusions of the Care Development Group;
- expand local joint working and pooled budget arrangements between NHSScotland and local authorities from November 2002;
- broaden access to direct payments for home care services, giving people greater control by purchasing their own services (became a right from 1 June 2003 and to be extended to other client groups from 1 April 2004);
- extend the right to assessment for informal carers, from September 2002, including young carers, and ensure that carers are made aware of this right;
- also from September, enable the contribution of carers and their views, as well as the views of the cared person, to be taken into account by local authorities before deciding which services to provide;
- allow "deferred payments" from July 2002, where residents can have part of their care home fees paid by their local authority so that they do not need to sell their home (money is eventually repaid to LA);
- enable local authorities to provide care home places elsewhere in the UK and
- ensure high standards among non principal GPs.
Click here for a fuller summary of the Act and the implementation timetable.