Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

"Care and support" is the term used to describe the help some individuals need to live as well as possible with an impairment, illness or disability.

Care and support options should not see an individual as a passive recipient of a service, but an active participant of the development of care and support based on the outcomes that matter to them and within the context of their individual skills, ambitions and priorities.

Care and support is not a service delivered to an individual but a network of support which seeks to actively promote individual wellbeing and independence and does not wait to respond until an individual has reached crisis point.

Care and support is not something which is facilitated by the local authority alone but incorporates opportunities from other sources such as the individual themselves, friends and families, the local community and social networks, universal services, private and voluntary organisations.

Each of the following functions under the Care Act 2014 describes the help which individuals can expect from the local authority to enable them to live as well as possible with an impairment, illness or disability.

- Promoting individual wellbeing [Care Act, Section 1]
- Providing information and advice [Section 4]
- Preventing needs for care and support [Section 2]
- Promoting integration of care and support with health services etc. [Section 3]
- Promoting diversity and quality in provision of services [Section 5]
- Co-operating [Sections 6-7]
- Assessing needs [Sections 9-13]
- Care and support planning [Section 25]
- Personal budgets [Section 26]
- Direct payments [Sections 31-33]
- Transition for children to adult care and support [Sections 58-66]
- Independent advocacy [Sections 67-68]
- Discharge of hospital patients with care and support needs [Section 74]
- After-care under the Mental Health Act 1983 [Section 75]
- Prisoners and persons in approved premises [Section 76]
- Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect [Sections 42-47]