How has the Coronavirus Act 2020 affected changes to England’s Care Act 2014 and changes to social care?

Some of its changes relate to English local authorities’ (councils’) social care duties, particularly ‘easements’ which allow them to radically change what they do under the Care Act 2014 and how they do it (for example, postponing reviews or changing a person’s care arrangements or not supplying care at all). There have been no studies of how this new Act has been affecting: councils, the people working in them, and people receiving Care Act services.

Project aims

The research team are investigating how the changes of the Coronavirus Act were put in place in social care. They want to find out what has happened so that any future emergencies can draw on these lessons. There have three main questions:

1. Of the councils that changed practice under the Coronavirus Act – particularly its easements of their Care Act duties (affecting what they MUST do) – why did they do this, what changed, and what did staff do?
2. What was the impact of these specific changes on people using services – and carers?
3. Did the changes under the Coronavirus Act enable these local councils to meet urgent and acute needs?

This project will support the needs of people living in south London by providing guidance on interpretation of the legislation relating to easements and support good practice in relation to service users.

This project will support the needs of people living in south London by providing guidance on interpretation of the legislation relating to easements and support good practice in relation to service users.

How the research will be carried out

The study will be carried out through document analysis, interviews with national experts and developing case studies of 10 councils that have adopted easements. We shall also contact service users and carers whose services changed as a direct result of the easements.

Our collaborators

The research team will work with local authorities and health services, social work groups, legal advisers, commentators and disability and carer groups.

Potential benefit of the project

The project will inform future practice both in times of a pandemic and beyond.  They will produce a short publication of the findings and an administrative report, as well as articles for peer-reviewed journals and brief, accessible summaries of findings and key messages.

They will also produce materials for the leading social work online publications, ‘Community Care’ and ‘Professional Social Work’ and undertake continuing professional development (CPD) webinars through Making Research Count. They will engage with social work networks and feed back to participating local authorities and will present the study’s main messages with other groups and individuals, e.g. chief social worker and user-led advocacy groups.

The study is funded by the NIHR School of Social Care Research. It was adopted by ARC South London in March 2020 and will be completed in March 2022.