Emergency Respite Care Fund

for Carers in Enfield

October 2007 (incorporating the Direct Access Fund originally established July 2002)

Type of Service

The Direct Access Fund was established in July 2002 to enable carers in Enfield to continue caring when they are in need of support. For example, where there is a risk of family breakdown. The purpose of this funding was to ensure local groups who support carers could quickly establish alternative care until a more permanent solution could be provided.

Alternative care was to be provided for no more than 72 hours and Social services alerted ASAP if there was a need for long-term care provision.

From October 2007 we are looking to expand this support.

What is the new service?

Enfield will receive an extra £152k to support the development of services to provide emergency cover to support carers, who are unable to care for a short period of time due to personal crisis or emergency.

The money will be made available to us from October 2007 and we have received guidance from central government on the use of funding for emergency respite care. We will link this with the existing funding and process under the Direct Access Fund.

Who will benefit?

Unpaid carers in Enfield who need emergency respite. There is an expectation that 20% of the funding will be directed to carers providing support to disabled children. This will include arrangements to provide alternative care for other children in a family to keep them together during a crisis, should a parent carer be temporarily unable to look after a disabled child.

This funding is aimed at those providing substantial and critical care. The assumption is that we will already know about these carers, and ideally have completed a carers’ assessment with them that includes a contingency plan in case of emergency. We will not preclude carers from accessing emergency respite if there is no contingency plan in place, however this area of work is being developed and will be embedded alongside carers’ assessments.

What constitutes an emergency?

These are some examples given, however local judgement may also inform what constitutes an emergency:
• Carer’s admission to hospital at short notice (within 5 working days) or other health needs which preclude them from providing care.
• Family emergency such as a close relative being taken ill and needing help/attention.
• Real risk to the carer’s employment on a particular occasion.
• Funeral of a close friend or relative.
• Response to safeguarding (adult or child protection) alert.

Care arrangements can be put in place at short notice to last at least 48 hours and no more than 72 hours while longer term arrangements are made.

How will it work?

Carers would notify social services of the emergency via the duty desk, out of hours team, existing day services, emergency card or they would approach one of the authorised participating local organisations they have received respite support from already.

The emergency provision will take the form of respite care or support alternative arrangements that will enable a relative or identified carer to provide support. This may include sitting service as agreed in the carers assessment plan, and/or alternatives e.g. transport costs, telecare, mobile phone or pet sitting.

If emergency arrangements are likely to go beyond 72 hours, the duty team must be notified on the first available working day to ensure plans are put into place. Failure to do so will risk the ability of teams to respond.

Claims will have a maximum authorisation level of £1,500. Participating voluntary groups can arrange care and support directly up to the maximum and be reimbursed through direct invoice to the Commissioning Manager (carers’ services). Groups will need to contact the Commissioning Manager prior to sending an invoice, to ensure a purchase order number can be raised and included on the invoice.

Claims can also be authorised
• Direct authorisation from Duty or Day Service Manager with appropriate signing authority.
• Direct authorisation from Commissioning Manager (Carers’ Services)

There will be no charge to the carer for the emergency provision.

What we need to do?

We need to ensure quality carers assessments are undertaken which must include the following:
• The carer and the care user should be a full partner in developing care arrangement plans in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2006.
• Plans should be based on the needs of the carer and updated regularly as part of carers’ assessment and review processes.
• Plans should take account of the individual’s social, emotional, medical, and in the case of children, their educational needs.
• Plans should involve all key agencies, including health and 3rd sector partners and take account of care that is already being provided by those agencies.
• Plans should be held in a readily accessible format that can be accessed quickly by LA, Health and 3rd sector partners so they can be put in place 24/7.
• More than one set of contingencies in the event that the plan involves participation of friends and/or relatives.
• Plans for emergency cover should take into account disability, culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religious beliefs for the carers and for those for whom they care.
• In the event that emergency respite care is provided for a carer/service user who is unknown to us, this will trigger a request for an assessment.

For carers who have not asked for an assessment of their needs by the local authority they can still access the emergency respite support by approaching one of the authorised participating local organisations detailed below.

Roles and responsibilities of the participating local organisations

Invoices should be submitted monthly to the Commissioning Officer for Carers Services accompanied by a ERC (Emergency Respite Care) claim form (see attached).

In order to assess the effectiveness of grant funding, monitoring will be carried out every six months. The ERC forms will be used towards that end and we will consult with carers who have accessed emergency support.

Authorised signatories for the Fund currently are:
• Jill Raines – Crossroads
• Sam Gajadhar – Alzheimer’s Society
• Jim McCowen – Age Concern
• Litsa Worrel – Greek and Greek Cypriot Community of Enfield
• Turgay Ertim – Enfield Turkish Cypriot Association
• Arifa Kapasi – Enfield Asian Carers Consortium
• Pam Burke – Enfield Mental Health Carers

Promotion of the scheme

The scheme will be promoted through carers assessments, and will benefit from linking to the carers’ emergency card.

This document was last updated on 2007-12-06 14:49:19 published by the Strategy & Perfomance team. Document Reference:LBE_117799