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

4 GUIDANCE - VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

4.1 Section 3: Values and Principles explains that the values underpinning care and support will be unique to each professional, the guidance does not, therefore, seek to impose values but rather describes the core values used to inform the guidance: These core values are: Respect; Fairness; Independence; Freedom; and Safety.

4.2 This Section of the guidance also outlines the four principles of care and support provided in the 2013 Act: In addition to the statutory principles, the guidance also outlines other good practice principles. A table shows all of these principles alongside what each means in practice. The principles are:

• Participation and dignity (statutory) - these are separated in the consultation table
• Involvement (statutory)
• Informed choice (statutory)
• Collaboration (statutory)
• Innovation
• Responsibility
• Risk enablement

Question 2a: Was this section of the guidance clear and easy to understand?

4.3 Most of those who replied (76) said that this section of the guidance was clear and easy to understand. Six respondents said it was not and the remainder (62) did not reply.

Question 2b: How useful did you find this section of the guidance?

4.4 Most of those who gave an answer said that it was quite useful (43), 33 respondents said it was very useful. There were five respondents who thought that this section was not very useful; one individual said it was not at all useful.

Table 4.2 Usefulness of Section 3 of the guidance

Question 2c: Do you have any further comments on this section of the guidance?

4.5 Eighty-five respondents commented, a small number of these simply stated their support for this section and many others voiced support in their response before going on to comment on issues that they felt needed to be addressed.

4.6 As with the previous section, few points were made by large numbers of respondents although many did make points specific to the guidance for children and young people with several identifying a need to make explicit reference to the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators for children and young people (Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Respected, Responsible, Included).

4.7 A small number of respondents, mainly from the voluntary sector, commented on the need for a more explicit link between the guidance and various equality legislation and more links with and focus on rights of independent living. There were comments from a number of respondents that equality and rights should be included in the list of values.

4.8 Some respondents thought this section long and unwieldy. A CHP respondent felt this was because "that the document conflates guidance on the operation of the Act with generic practitioner guidance". A voluntary organisation said: "I agree with anchoring the guidance in a few key principles but surely less is more here?"

4.9 Several respondents welcomed the principle of Informed Choice underpinning care and support provision. There was, however, a call for greater clarity on how this should be supported and a need for the description of 'informed choice' to be strengthened to "emphasise that the supported person should be assisted to have as much control as they want over the support they choose". (professional/regulatory body)

4.10 The inclusion of Innovation was welcomed by respondents, with another organisation saying: "Although it is not a statutory principle, it is hoped that the use of the other principles will lead to innovation, with the help of creative thinking from people, professionals, providers and advocacy/Brokerage services". However, there were calls for this to be clarified or for examples to be given. A voluntary organisation suggested 'Creativity' would be a better term.

4.11 There were suggestions that the sentence 'Communities should be assisted to play an active role in the commissioning of services' be moved from Involvement to Participation; there was also a suggestion that this be reworded as their input extends beyond commissioning." There were also queries over what is meant by communities and how this would be achieved and comments that this sentence is confusing.

4.12 The need for monitoring and documentation was mentioned in several responses, for example a voluntary organisation said: "At paragraph 12 (Involvement (Section 1 in SDS Act)) we believe that the guidance should detail how this should be recorded and monitored, as without robust recording and monitoring it is unclear how meaningful involvement will be assured. It may also be useful to include a minimum expectation of what might be expected in terms of 'involvement' or further explanation of what 'involvement' might mean."

4.13 Another voluntary organisation asked: "how will statutory services demonstrate that they are acting in accordance with the principles and how easy would it be to challenge a service which repeatedly ignores the principles". There was also a question as to whether staff have adequate training and support to ensure they are able to provide the support required in relation to SDS.

4.14 There were some suggestions that more emphasis needs to be placed on safety and risk; including clarification and personal responsibility. This would also include the need for greater emphasis on supporting people to take risks. More clarification was requested over the terms risk enablement and risk management.

4.15 Several respondents, mainly from voluntary organisations, asked for more detail on how the principles and values would be achieved; there was a suggestion that examples of how to put these into practice would be very useful in this section.