Care Act Easements template letters
We’re sharing template letters you can use to get information from local authorities about what is happening with Care Act Easements in your area.
Care Act Easements
The Coronavirus Act is designed to enable the country to deal with the unprecedented impact of COVID-19. The Act allows local authorities not to fully meet some of their duties under the Care Act. There is Government Guidance about this called the Care Act Easements Guidance.
Using the Easements
Local authorities must only reduce what they do, or the support that they pay for, if and when they have to do so because of Coronavirus. Each local authority must decide individually.
If a local authority decides that it must use the Easements then it should communicate this decision to people who use services, carers and service providers. We believe that it is very important that people who use services, advocacy organisations and service providers understand what is happening in their area if the Easements are being used. This will help these organisations to provide the best support to people and will help those of us who use services or are carers to know what we can still expect.
We have also heard from people who are worried that their local authority is not following the Care Act because of coronavirus, even though the local authority has not taken a decision to use the Easements.
Template letters
We have produced two template letters to help advocates, care providers, people who use services and their families to get information from local authorities about what is happening.
Letter 1 has been written to get more information when Care Act Easements have been activated by the local authority.
Letter 2 has been written for when the Care Act Easements have not been activated locally but it appears that actions are being taken as if they have.
You can adapt the letters to your own situation. We’d love to hear about your experience. Please contact cv19@voiceability.org
Which local authorities have decided to use the Easements and to whom have we written already?
We have already written to the affected local authorities in those areas where we work, to understand more about their situation so that we can support our clients most effectively in these areas.
Acknowledgement and disclaimer
The template letters were written by VoiceAbility.
We are grateful to Steve Broach of 39 Essex Chambers and Alex Rook of Rook Irwin Sweeney LLP for reviewing and advising on these letters.
They are being provided in the hope of helping others based on the best information available at a particular point in time and are provided without liability being accepted.