Support for Adults with care needs

Local Authority Responses to people with NRPF during the 14 pandemic

Support for Adults with care needs

For adults with care needs in England, the relevant legislation is the Care Act 2014. (In the other nations of the UK other legislation applies – in Wales, Section 35 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014; Scotland, Sections 12 and 13A of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968; and in Northern Ireland, Articles 7 and 15 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.)

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to assess the needs of anyone who is ordinarily resident in their area who appears to have a need for care and support. For those who have no ordinary place of residence (such as people with NRPF who have been homeless) section 18 and 19 of the Care Act determine that local authorities have a power to meet the needs of someone who is physically present in their area even if they have no formal place of residence.

However, if a person is part of an excluded group under schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, they can only be provided with support if the support is necessary to prevent a breach of their human rights. Excluded groups include:

· People who are not currently seeking asylum and is unlawfully present in the UK,

· EEA nationals (not UK nationals)

· People who have been granted refugee status by another EEA State

· Refused asylum seekers who fail to comply with removal directions

· Refused asylum seekers with dependent children who have been certified by the Secretary of

State as having failed to take steps to leave the UK voluntarily.

Eligibility for care support relies on meeting a three-stage test set out in section 13(1) of the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015. However, there is an additional test for people with NRPF to meet. Section 21 of the Care Act 2014 stipulates that a local authority cannot provide care support to someone whose needs for care and support arise solely because the adult is destitute, or because of the physical effects of being destitute. This has become known as the ‘destitution plus’ test, and has the effect of making adults with care needs the service-user group who face the most barriers to accessing local-authority support.