Community care plans

You could get extra help to cover your time off from your local authority through its community care plan.

Local authorities must prepare a community care plan on a regular basis. These set out who will be eligible for council services. If the needs of the person that you look after match these eligibility criteria, the local authority must provide services to meet their needs. These services could include respite care to give you a break.

What Social Services can do

Social services:

• must only meet the needs that no one else is willing to meet.
• cannot refuse to meet a need they have identified, solely because they do not have the money or other resources.

The person that you look after can refuse help from social services.

Ask your local social services to assess your needs as a carer. The assessment must be done by the local authority in the area where the person you look after lives.

Find out more in our Carer's Assessment section.