Great britain. department of health

This document sets out recommendations for guiding the development of mental health nursing, with the core aim of improving the outcomes and experience of care for service users and carers.

Direct payments are crucial to achieving the Government's aim to increase independence, choice and control for service users and their carers through allowing them the opportunity to arrange their own personalised care. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 extends the availability of direct payments to those people who lack the capacity to consent to their receipt.

Across Government, the shared ambition is to put people first through a radical reform of public services, enabling people to live their own lives as they wish, confident that services are of high quality, are safe and promote their own individual needs for independence, well-being and dignity.

The Taskforce feels strongly that the recognition of carers role and contribution is a priority and essential to achieving equality for carers, and this is reflected in the recommendations. The group considered two potential approaches to strengthening this; extending protection to carers under legislation. This would not only provide an important underpinning to the other recommendations but also have a real and lasting impact for carers in the longer term.

Information on what the changes introduced by the Care Act will mean for carers and the cared for. The resource provides an explanation of care and support in England and outlines key elements of the act, including: deferred payment agreements; needs and eligibility; support for carers; and cap on care costs.

The White Paper 'Caring for our future: reforming care and support' sets out plans to develop and test potential new assessment and eligibility models. From April 2015, subject to the passage of the Care Bill, a new national minimum threshold for eligibility will be specified, which will set a guarantee of the minimum needs which local authorities must meet in every area. This will be introduced through a provision in clause 13 of the Bill, which requires Secretary of State to make regulations to set out the “eligibility criteria” for all local authorities.

The aim of this document is to help local mental health services develop support services for carers of people with mental health problems. It contains guidance on developing and sustaining mental health carer support services and also includes a sample job description for carer support workers. The guidance should be read in conjunction with Standard Six (Caring for Carers) of the Mental Health National Service Framework (MHNSF) and guidance on implementation of the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000.

The Essence of Care benchmarks are a tool to help healthcare practitioners take a patient-focused and structured approach to sharing and comparing practice. There are 12 benchmarks in total. This document outlines the benchmarks for communication, in order to support people and their carers to experience effective communication.

In July 2010, the Department of Health published a call for views on the key priorities, supported wherever possible by evidence of good practice that will have the greatest impact on improving carers’ lives in the next four years. In total, 764 responses were received.

The End of Life Care Strategy promotes high quality care for all adults approaching the end of life in England. Its aim is to provide people approaching the end of life with more choice about where they would like to live and die. It encompasses all adults with advanced, progressive illness and care given in all settings.