Departments Directions Social Fund Guide

Part 2 - Community Care Grants

Establishing priorities

General

3300Community care means helping individuals and families to:

establish themselves in the community
maintain themselves in the community
continue their links with family, friends and local life

Community Care Grants are intended to contribute towards these objectives. Department's guidance describes the types of groups and circumstances which Community Care Grants are intended to help.

3301-3319

Guidance on priorities for Community Care Grants

3320National guidance on priority of need and local guidance on budgetary planning are important factors to consider when reaching decisions. See Section 140(2) and (5) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 and Article 38(7) and (11) of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

3321Remember that SF payments are discretionary and the absence of guidance applying to a particular item, service or expenses requested in a given application does not mean that help should be refused.

Classifying needs as high, medium and low priority

3322When deciding the priority category consider the nature, extent and urgency of the need, and whether the need can be met in any other way. In particular, consider:

the general circumstances of the applicant and/or their family (see 3328)
the urgency of the need and its relevance to direction 4 (see 3329

3323Consider where the applicant’s need fits, within three broad categories: high priority, medium priority and low priority.

3324It will normally be appropriate to give high priority to a need, if:

an award for the item requested will have a substantial and immediate effect in resolving or improving the circumstances of the applicant and in meeting the aims of the qualifying part of direction 4.

3325It will normally be appropriate to give medium priority to a need, if:

an award for the item requested will have a noticeable effect, although not substantial and immediate, in resolving or improving the applicant’s circumstances and in meeting the aims of the qualifying part of direction 4.

3326It will normally be appropriate to give low priority to a need, if:

an award for the item requested will have only a minor effect in resolving or improving the applicant’s circumstances or in meeting the aims of the qualifying part of the direction.

3327In the above guidance, the word ‘immediate’ can be taken to mean ‘in the immediately foreseeable future’, where, for example, an applicant is about to move into a new home, or an application is made in advance of discharge from institutional or residential care (Direction 25(2)(b)).

General circumstances which may affect priority

3328Consider the significance of individual circumstances in deciding the priority of an application. The following examples are not exhaustive and should be used only as a guide:

a person’s ability to cope with independent living may be particularly difficult because of:
- restricted mobility
- learning difficulties
- mental health problems
- physical disability
- mental or chronic physical illness
experiences of physical or social abuse or neglect may leave someone especially vulnerable and lacking in confidence, for example young people:
- from broken homes or
- who have never had a home
returning to the community after a long period of residential or institutional care may leave someone very insecure and vulnerable, especially if they are setting up a new home on their own
a long period of sleeping rough may leave someone with little or no concept of how to:
- live in a settled way or
- cope with the problems of budgeting on a low income
unstable family circumstances may put the well being of children at risk and increase the chances that they may have to be taken into care, for example:
- a parent behaves irrationally or
- relationships within the family are at breaking point
behavioural problems often associated with drug or alcohol abuse, are likely to:
- add to the difficulties of a vulnerable person trying to live independently, and
- increase the need for a stable environment.

The urgency of the need

3329When determining the priority of the need and its relevance to Direction 4, you should refer to the specific paragraphs in Part 2 of this Guide, which refer to the appropriate part of direction 4. You should give higher priority to an application which will have a substantial and immediate effect in improving the applicant’s circumstances and on meeting the aims of the qualifying part of direction 4, for example:

where there is a substantial and immediate risk of the applicant being taken into care, and an award of certain items would significantly reduce that risk;
where the lack of a certain item would seriously undermine the possibility of a person being established in the community;
where the provision of a grant would alleviate immediately in a very noticeable and substantial way the exceptional pressure being faced by a family.

3330-3349

Consideration of budgetary position

3350Decision Makers must always complete the process of determining the priority of the Community Care Grant before considering the budgetary position.

3351When establishing the priority of the need taking account of paras 3320-3328 above is only part of the process of deciding whether an award can be made, and if so how much can be awarded. Section 136 (1) (e) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 states that Decision Makers must also have regard to the budget. The Area Decision Maker has a role to play in this, see para 7257.

3352Directions 40 and 42 impose a duty upon Decision Makers to control and manage the Community Care Grant budget so that:

high priority needs are met first throughout the whole of the allocation period;
the allocation is not exhausted before year end

3353The Area Decision Maker will monitor demand on the budget and issue/re-issue guidance to Decision Makers about the level of priority that can be met. This guidance is intended to help Decision Makers to meet the requirements of Direction 42 by indicating the level of priority that can be met from the budget. It focuses on whether the budget can meet Community Care Grant applications within all three levels of priority, within two levels or just one (see paras 3324 - 3326 and 7257).

3354Decision Makers must take account of Area Decision Maker guidance. However, they must also take account of the budgetary position. This means looking at evidence about the state of the budget for all decisions. In most cases, routine evidence about actual and forecast spend to date will be sufficient evidence of the budgetary position. But there will be times when more evidence is needed and it will need to be considered in more detail in the decision.

Evidence of budgetary position

3355Decision Makers may need to focus more on the budgetary position when the Area Decision Maker guidance does not have enough of an impact on the control of expenditure in times of increased/decreased demand levels.

3356For example, there is heavy demand on the budget and the Area Decision Maker guidance already reflects this by indicating that only needs assessed as high priority to the extent that the budgetary position allows can be met. But forecast spend is still higher than it should be. In such cases, Decision Makers should look for further information to help them to decide the budgetary position and how it affects the consideration of an individual case.

3357Further information might be:

comparison of current demand with previous years
whether significant work is outstanding and its potential impact on the budget
the Area Decision Maker summary of how the current budgetary position has been arrived at
(See paras 7261 and 7262)