Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013: statutory guidance

Statutory Guidance

This document contains statutory guidance on the provision of social care support, and related processes. It is issued to local authorities in order to update the relevant guidance and to reflect the duties and powers accompanying the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013. The guidance covers adults, children, young carers and adult carers. It was developed by Scottish Government with contributions from a joint working group of key partner organisations.

First published April 2014

Updated October 2022

This document is an update of Statutory Guidance originally published in 2014. This document retains some of what was in the original Guidance, but has some important differences. These include:

• Addition of an Executive Summary;
• Addition of further information about human rights and a human rights-based approach, in Section 1 and throughout the document;
• Incorporation of the Self-directed Support Framework of Standards (2021), throughout the document;
• Incorporation of parts of the pandemic guidance on Self-directed Support published in March 2022, in Section 3;
• Updated information about roles and responsibilities of duty-bearers and others involved in the delivery of Self-directed Support, in Section 4;
• Updated information about legislation that has come into force since 2014, in Section 5;
• Updated information about budgeting, charging, commissioning and procurement, in Section 7;
• Updated information about employment issues, in Section 8;
• Updated information about making complaints, in Section 9;
• Updated links to other information and resources, in Section 11 and throughout the document;
• Addition of diagrams about how SDS should work, in Annex 1;
• Addition of a glossary in Annex 2.