Deciding how much control and responsibility you want to have around your support (carers)
If you are an unpaid carer and you are eligible for formal support through your local council, you can decide how much control and responsibility you want to have for arranging and managing that support.
You should be offered four different options for choosing how much control and responsibility you want to have.
These options are designed to give you the level of responsibility you would like.
Some people want to be responsible for all aspects of their support, and are comfortable managing money directly.
Some people would prefer someone else to organise their support for them, while taking their views into account.
Some people are in the middle, and want some responsibility, but would like someone else to handle other parts of their support.
To enable you to have as much or as little responsibility as you want, your social worker must ask you how involved you want to be in organising your support. They will give you four options to choose from.
What option is best for me?
To help you decide, you can find out more about each of the four options in the articles linked at the bottom of this page.
You can find examples of how carers have used the different options in the Case study at the bottom of this page.
You can get help to think about what option is best for you from your local Carers’ Centre.
You can find details of your local Carers’ Centre here.
Next steps
Read more about each of the Options, and how they work, in the next articles:
Lots of carers are given the information they need to make an informed choice about their options.
But we know that some common issues come up for people.
Here is what do to if any of these things happen to you.
I was not told about the different options I have for managing my support
If this happens, you can ask your social worker about the four options and ask why they were not explained to you.
You can show them this page and talk to them about the level of responsibility you want to have when it comes to your support.
You can explain that you have the legal right to be told about the four options.
The option I want to use is not available in my area
As a carer eligible for support, you are usually legally entitled to be offered all four options.
But, in some parts of Scotland, not every option is available. This might be because there are no care organisations that provide the type of support you need.
If this is the case, your social worker should still explain what the options are and if each one of them is available.
Regardless of what options are available locally to you, your social worker should still ask you how much control and responsibility you want to have in arranging your support.
They should work with you to help you get as close to the level of responsibility that you want. This is working within what is possible from the available options.
The law about social care support is called the Social Care (Self Directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
It says:
- If carers are eligible for support through their local council, they must be given the opportunity to choose from the 4 Options to decide how much control and responsibility they want to have around their support
- There may be circumstances where the council decides a carer is not eligible to take Option 1 – a Direct Payment. This is where the carer is given cash directly and manages the cash themselves. If the council decides Option 1 is not appropriate they must explain why.
You can find the part of the law that talks about the Options available to carers here.
Case Study: Examples of carers who use different options to manage their support
There are lots of examples of carers who have taken different levels of control and responsibility when it comes to managing their support.
Read on to see some examples, to help you think about how much control and responsibility you want to take.
Case study: Examples of carers who use different options to manage their support