Care planning

Care planning is the process where you discuss and agree details of the care you want or need and exactly what will be provided.

You might go through the care planning process with a friend, a neighbour, a local authority, or an organisation providing care, such as a care home. Local authorities and care providers have formal legal duties around how they must work with you to plan and agree the care you will get.

Note that much of this information is for England. If you need support for issues in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, please contact our adviceline.

With social services

  • If you think that you may need help with day to day life, you are entitled to a Social Care Needs Assessment. This is provided by your local authority’s Adult Social Care department.

    You are entitled to the Social Care Needs Assessment regardless of your financial position. This is protected by law under the Care Act.

    A focus on wellbeing
    The main principle of the Care Act is to support your wellbeing. This focus on wellbeing goes beyond just the care you receive. So as part of assessing your needs, the local authority has a duty to signpost or refer you to other services in your area that might be helpful to you. This might be a support group, Occupational Therapist team, or details of NHS continuing healthcare funding.

    Even if you are not eligible for financial help towards your care, you can still ask the local authority to provide your care, although you will be charged for it.

  • Once they have assessed you, the local authority must also provide you with support if you meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

    You can read the details of these eligibility criteria here but broadly they include:

    • Do the needs arise from a mental or physical impairment or illness?

    • Do these needs mean that the person is unable to achieve two or more aspects of self care, such as feeding, getting dressed, going to the toilet, keeping the house, being part of the community, and so on.

    • Is there consequently a significant impact on wellbeing?

    All assessed needs are valid
    One of the principles of needs assessment is that no assessed need should be prioritised against another. So, for example, maintaining your family relationships should be seen as just as important as ensuring that your nutritional needs are met.

    It’s all about you
    A key thing to remember is that you are central to the assessment. The local authority must ensure that you are not just involved but understand the process.

    This is the case whether you wish to be assessed in person, via an online form on their website, or over the telephone.

    Another thing to bear in mind is that the Care Act allows local authorities to screen contacts to the authority at a point of first contact. However, people should never be refused an assessment because they have too much money.

    Support from a family member, friend or advocate
    During the process of assessment, if you would like support from a friend or family member, or from an advocate, the local authority should respect that wish and make sure they are involved.

    Carers have needs, too
    Carers also have needs, so don’t forget that your carer can also get a needs assessment which might identify some support that is available to them.

  • After the local authority has assessed your needs they should involve you in preparing a suitable support plan. You, and with your permission, anyone that is supporting you, should have access to the plan as well as being given a copy of your support plan once it is agreed with you and finalised. This plan should include the cost of meeting your care needs (your care budget) as well as any contributions towards this that you will need to make. See our Money and Costs page for more details.

    If you do not have the mental capacity to give your permission to the local authority to share your support plan with others, and no one has the authority as your power of attorney to act on your behalf, then the local authority must follow the Mental Capacity Act. They should only allow access to it if it believes it would be in your best interest for them to do so. However, they must ensure that you have an advocate, whether paid for or a friend or family member, to help you through the process and they will need access to the plan in order to assist you.

With your care provider

  • Whether you move into a care home or receive care at home, fund all of your care or receive support from the local authority or NHS, the care provider should carry out their own assessment of your needs with you and if you would like, your representative. This should happen before your care starts so that you can ensure it is the care you are expecting and agree to, but in some emergencies, must happen as soon as possible after the care starts. This is a requirement under Regulation 9 Person Centred Care

  • If your care has been arranged or part paid for by the local authority or NHS, then your care package must meet these needs, including assisting you to see those who are important to you in the community. Regulation 9 Person Centred Care and Regulation 11 Need for consent

    Regardless to how your care is funded, your care provider must agree your own care plan with you. This should not just be agreeing what you need help with, but include your preferences and wishes. The provider should consider how you want to be supported and consider your autonomy and wellbeing. In addition to when and how you prefer to receive your personal care needs, this should include, when you like to get up, foods you like and don’t like, things you like to do and enjoy. It should also include help you need to support you to engage with your local community, whether it is maintaining relationships or accessing health appointments.

    If any of these needs or preferences are outside of the standard fee, the care home provider must be clear about any costs.

  • This document is about you, it is important that it is correct. There is no direct legislation that requires care providers to give you a copy of the care plan. However, it is difficult to see how they could meet their legal requirements to involve you or your representative, and gain your consent without doing so.

    Your care plan also forms part of the contract for your care and placement.

    The provider has a responsibility to ensure your and/or your representative’s agreement to it. To do this effectively, it is important that you and/or your representative have access to it. For example providing a copy on request or access via an online portal. Some on line systems allow you to feedback or make suggestions and can be very helpful to aid communication between the provider, resident and their representative.

    Regardless to how, care homes must ensure that information held about you is accessible, particularly when requested. Regulation 9 Person Centred Care and Regulation 11 Need for consent require your involvement and consent.

    What if I don’t receive a copy?

    If your care provider for whatever reason, fails to provide you with a copy on request, you or your Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare can make a ‘Subject Access Request’ under the General Data Protection Regulations to request this information, along with any other information they hold about you that you may want to access.

    If you are able to give your consent to a third party, then they may also make a ‘Subject Access Request’ on your behalf.

    Alternatively, you may want to consider following their complaints process or making a referral to the Care Quality Commission.

This content last checked and updated: January 2023

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