Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP)
An Adult Carer Support Plan is for anyone performing a caring role who is over the age of 18.
It is known as an ACSP for short.
What is an ACSP?
The purpose of the Plan or Statement is to recognise the effects of your caring role and to find out what you need to enable you to have a life outside your caring role.
If you are reading this, it is because you are helping to care for a family member or friend who could not cope without your support.
This makes you an unpaid carer (or if you are under 18, a young carer).
You have probably already been involved in arranging social care support for the person you care for. As part of these discussions, your caring role should be recognised. You should be able to access support for yourself as an unpaid carer.
The process of getting support starts with making an Adult Carer Support Plan.
What is involved in getting in Adult Carer Support Plan?
The Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP) is usually created at the same time as the person you care for is being assessed for their own support needs.
Creating the Plan will usually be done by a social worker and will usually take place where the person you care for lives.
The purpose of the Plan is to detail your needs as a carer.
This will involve looking at:
areas of your life where you are doing many more tasks than a person who is not a carer
areas where you have a higher level of need than someone who is not caring for someone else
the effect that caring is having on your physical and emotional wellbeing
whether caring means you are isolated from family and friends
whether caring makes it difficult for you to work or go to school/ college/ university
whether caring stops you making plans for the future.
The purpose of asking these questions and making a Plan is to recognise the effects of your caring role and to find out what you need to enable you to have a life outside your caring role. As part of creating the Plan, the worker will ask if you are willing to undertake your caring role and if you are happy to undertake that role. You do no need to take on the role of being a carer or young carer if you do not want to.
They will also ask you about emergency planning. For example, what happens if you cannot do your usual caring role for some reason?
They will also ask you about the future. For example, what do you want to do with your life now and in the future?
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Download our factsheet
Your social worker will discuss your Plan with you to decide what level of eligibility for support you have.
Take a look at our factsheet that may help you to prepare:
Download a copy
Check the eligibility criteria
Your social worker will discuss your Plan with you to decide what level of eligibility for support you have.
The West Lothian carer eligibility criteria can be viewed and downloaded:
Download a copy
Your most asked questions
About our Adult Carer Support Plans
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Unfortunately, there are often long waiting times to get a Plan in place.
The law does not say that a Plan should be created within a certain time.
One exception is if the person you care for has a terminal illness and is expected to pass away within the next six months. In this case, your Carer Assessment should be offered within two working days and an Adult Carer Support Plan completed within ten working days.
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When the Plan is completed, the worker will pass a copy to you and check it is accurate.
If you do not think it has accurately reflected your situation or needs, you can ask for changes to be made to it.
If your Plan recognises that you need support in your own right, it may give you access to a small budget to enable you to get this support.
Your Plan should be reviewed at least once a year to see if your circumstances or needs have changed.
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The law about support for unpaid carers and young carers is called the Carers Act (Scotland) 2016.
It says:
if your council identifies you as a carer or young carer, they must offer you an Adult Carer Support Plan
you must be given a copy of your Adult Carer Support Plan, unless your local council considers this would not be appropriate. You can also request for the Plan to be shared with someone else.
You can find the full text of the law here.
The Carers Act Statutory Guidance is legal guidance written for local councils to tell them how support for carers and young carers should work.
The guidance sets out what councils are expected to do around Adult Carer Support Plans, including:
their duties to offer and to prepare an Adult Carer Support Plan, and carers’ right to request a plan
timescales for creating a Plan for a carer or young carer who cares for someone who is terminally ill
identifying the needs and outcomes of carers
the minimum information that an Adult Carer Support Plan must contain
how Adult Carer Support Plans should be reviewed
what information carers should get about their Plan.
You can see the part of the Statutory Guidance that talks about these things here.
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The Scottish Government have published the Carers’ Charter, to help carers understand their rights under the law.
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The Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) use a Resource Allocation System (RAS) to identify the budget requirements for each individual based on their needs.
The system uses the information gathered from your Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP) and puts this into seven personal needs questions. Based on the answers the social worker will understand where you are going to need support and what the cost of that support will be.
The seven personal needs questions are:
Meeting Personal Needs and Looking after Myself - Health
Meeting Personal Needs and Looking after Myself - Personal Care
Staying Safe and Managing Complex Needs and Tasks
Running and Maintaining the Household I am living in
Making Decisions and Organising My Life
Social Relationships and Community Activities
Employability/ Volunteering/ Personal Development
The Council will inform you of the budget that is available for you to spend on meeting your agreed outcomes.
Your budget will usually be administered 4-weekly, in advance, but this may differ depending on your agreed outcomes. Individual budgets will vary from person to person due to individuals having different needs, circumstances, and preferred outcomes. Your individual budget will be subject to review on an annual basis.
More questions?