THE new Care Act heralds the biggest change to adult social care in more than 60 years but Poole residents should not expect an upheaval.

“Anybody currently eligible for care is not going to become ineligible in Poole,” said Peter Courage, Borough of Poole project manager for implementation of the Care Act.

Part One of the act comes into force on April 1 and brings care onto a legal footing with a national standard of care and support.

The new law also gives a duty to local authorities to provide better information and advice and a new universal deferred payment scheme will enable people to keep their homes by deferring some care costs to a charge being placed on the property.

“Some of it is accepted good practice into legislation. Some of it is about tidying up the legislation so it flows and makes sense,” said Phil Hornsby, head of adult social care commissioning and improvement.

The portability aspect of the act means that if someone moves to Poole, their care package goes with them – although it will be re-assessed at some stage.

“It means people can access the same level of eligibility anywhere in the country,” said David Vitty, head of adult social care services. “The care they have elsewhere should be very similar to the level of care they can access in Poole.”

It also puts carers on the same footing as those they care for, giving local authorities a duty to assess their needs. “The legal recognition of carers has been long overdue. It’s a fantastic thing,” said Peter.

He said Poole already operated best practice on many of these issues and provided, “a really good raft of services for carers”, but were looking to expand some of these in future.

At the last census around one in 10 people described themselves as a carer and there are thought to be far more – both adult and young carers – than seek help from the council.

Safeguarding is also being put on a statutory footing for the first time, giving local authorities a duty to investigate concerns of harm to a vulnerable person, with a multi-agency safeguarding board – something Poole already has.

Bournemouth and Poole councils have each given out well over 1,000 information packs at public sessions and there is a website for all Dorset residents, mylifemycare.com.

Poole has been given £1.068million from government to implement this first stage of the Care Act. The second part in a year’s time deals with financial matters.

Borough of Poole’s helpdesk is on 01202 633902.