Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013: Draft Regulations and Statutory Guidance – Analysis of Consultation Responses

2 INTRODUCTION

Background

2.1 Self-directed Support (SDS) offers individuals and their families informed choice about how support is provided to them. It gives people control over an individual budget and lets them decide how to spend money on the support best suited to their health and social care needs. There are four ways in which a person's individual support can be accessed and these are:

• Option 1. A direct cash payment.
• Option 2. Payment to a provider chosen by the individual; the council or funder is the budget holder but decisions on how it is spent are made by the individual.
• Option 3. Choice of a council arranged service.
• Option 4. A mix of the three above options for different types of support.

2.2 In November 2012 the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 was passed by the Scottish Parliament. This Act aims to deliver the Scottish Government's vision for social care where support is based around the individual accessing support rather than the services providing this support. It sets out the duties placed on local authorities and the options for those accessing services. Scottish Ministers still have to decide the date when the Act will come into force but it is expected to be in March 2014.

2.3 Statutory Guidance and Regulations have been drafted to accompany the Act. The Statutory Guidance focuses on:

• The general principles of dignity, participation, involvement, informed choice and collaboration.
• The duty to provide a range of choices to those who are eligible for care and support.
• The duty to provide information and support.
• The power to provide support to carers - and the accompanying duty to provide choice over that support.
• The duties and powers in relation to assessment, support planning and review.

2.4 The draft Regulations are intended to provide a further level of law beneath the main Act and to deal with any additional relevant details.

2.5 From 17 April to 10 July 2013, the Scottish Government ran a consultation on the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 draft Regulations and Statutory Guidance. The consultation sought views on the proposed draft Regulations and Statutory Guidance and on the associated Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA).

2.6 A total of 144 consultation responses were received; 21 from individuals^[1] and 123 from organisations.

Overview of responses

2.7 The consultation respondent information form (RIF) included a list of organisation and individual groups and respondents were asked to tick the group most appropriate for themself or for their organisation. These groups were used to enable analysis as to whether differences, or commonalities, appeared across the various different types of organisations and/or individuals that responded.

2.8 As can be seen in the following table, almost half of all organisational responses came from the voluntary sector (57).

Table 2.1 Consultation responses

*Community Health Partnership respondents will be referred to as CHP in the reporting.
**Organisations in the Other category will be referred to as another organisation in the reporting.
***One local authority and health board submitted a joint response, this is included in the Other category.

2.9 A number of user-led organisations responded and these are included either in the Voluntary or in the Support & information or Advocacy organisation totals, depending on which of these was ticked on the response form. Where both of these boxes were ticked the response has been included in the Support & information or Advocacy total.

2.10 No respondents classed themselves as Central government or Academic institutions.

2.11 Fifteen respondents (individuals and voluntary organisations) submitted their comments using an easy-read summary version of the consultation which had fewer questions.

2.12 The consultation paper also provided a template for respondents to submit case studies for consideration in the final version of the statutory guidance, or additional best practice guides. Seven respondents submitted one or more case studies.

2.13 A list of all those organisations who submitted a response to the consultation is included in Appendix 1.

Analysis and reporting

2.14 Comments given at each question were examined to identify main themes; similar issues raised or comments made in a number of responses. We also looked for sub-themes such as reasons for opinions, specific examples or explanations, alternative suggestions or other related comments.

2.15 It became apparent that a great many responses contained very detailed comments on wording or other aspects of the guidance and Regulations. Most of the comments made on each of the sections of the guidance and regulations were very specific and, in very many cases, one-off issues around things which respondents thought had been omitted or needed clarification, or on suggested changes to ordering, or to words and phrases. Respondents submitted their own suggestions for alterations and additions; some included re-writes of paragraphs or sections. There were also detailed comments on structure. While the Self-directed Support Policy team are considering all of these points, they have not been included here as this would make for a very long and complicated report.

2.16 While some, more general, themes did emerge, these came from fairly small numbers of respondents. In addition, although the consultation asked separate questions about the draft Regulations and the Statutory Guidance, many themes, and many specific points, were common to both.

2.17 The themes that were identified were looked at in relation to respondent groups to see whether any particular theme was specific to one particular group, or whether it appeared in responses across groups. It must be borne in mind that where an opinion has been identified in relation to a particular group or groups, this does not indicate that other groups do not share this opinion, but rather that they have simply not commented on that particular point. Where no groups are mentioned in relation to a theme it can be taken that related comments appeared in responses across a number of groups.

2.18 Some questions contained yes/no or other tick box options to allow respondents to indicate their response. Results from these questions are presented either in text or in table format. Where respondents did not use the questionnaire format for their response but indicated within their text their answer to one of the closed questions, these have been included in the relevant count.

2.19 The following chapters document the substance of the analysis and present the main views, or themes, emerging from responses. Appropriate verbatim comments, from those who gave permission for their responses to be made public, are used throughout the report to illustrate themes or to provide extra detail for some specific points.

2.20 While the consultation gave all those who wished to comment an opportunity to do so, given the self-selecting nature of this type of exercise, any figures quoted here cannot be extrapolated to the wider population.