Law & legislation

There have been two widely reported criminal cases where informal carers, including family members, have been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of the vulnerable person in their care. In this article, Richard Griffith considers the duty on informal carers when caring for a person and the duty on district nurses to protect vulnerable persons from harm. 

It is more than 25 years since the critical dialogue on young carers was played out in the pages of this journal (see Morris and Keith, 1995; Aldridge and Becker, 1996). Since that time, research evidence has given us a clearer picture of the extent of young caring in the UK and its consequences for children and families, including two new national studies that focus on the prevalence and impact of young caring in England.

The article reports that Andrew Dilnot, chairman of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, has ruled out having free personal care in England. He states that free personal care will not be recommended by the commission as it will not be resilient enough if implemented. He mentions that the commission will put forward the suggestion of having partnership approach which would combine resources from state, informal carers and individuals.