Issue details

Section 79 of the Care Act gives local authorities the power to delegate most of the care and support functions it has under Part 1 of the Act or under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (after-care services).  The only exceptions relate to promoting integration with health services, cooperating with partners, safeguarding and decisions about which services to charge for.

Delegation of functions does not absolve the local authority of responsibility for these functions and it still remains legally accountable for the way in which the functions are carried out or failed to be carried out.  The local authority can, therefore, impose strict conditions on how a third party organisation undertakes the function that has been delegated to it.  If the local authority chooses to exercise its power under Section 79, it is able to determine the extent to which it delegates the function in any particular case, i.e. it can delegate all or part of a function.  For example the carrying out of an assessment could be delegated with the final decision kept in-house or also delegated.

The local authority wishes to exercise this power in order to effectively implement the requirements of the Act in a timely and cost effective manner.  Initially it is believed this would be in the following areas:

•        Assessment and care provision for prisoners (new duty from April 2015 under s76 of the Act).

•        Carers’ assessments and support for carers

•        Specialist assessments and support for deaf people

•        Specialist assessments and support for blind people

The detailed decisions of how this will work in practice can be taken by the Corporate Director for Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, after full discussion in each case with the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Adult Transformation Board.