Referral to specialist teams

Safeguarding

A case with more than three additional cared for people does not in itself indicate a safeguarding issue. However, carers with multiple caring roles are more likely to experience negative impacts on their wellbeing, which can also affect the people that they care for.

It is difficult to gain insight into the maximum number of caring hours an individual carer could reasonably undertake before there are safeguarding considerations for either the carer or the cared for person.

Risk of harm

If you have any concerns while in contact with a client or while processing a case, you should consider whether a client, a cared-for person, or any other person within the household is at risk of harm.

Immediate risk of significant harm means you’ve witnessed or identified something where it’s clear that the person is in danger.

Suspected risk of harm is when you hear or witness something that causes concern for someone’s safety or wellbeing.

If a risk of harm to either the carer, the cared-for person, or a person within their household is identified or observed, you should follow safeguarding guidance.

Fraud

Benefit fraud is when a person is getting, or has applied for, a benefit or award they know they’re not supposed to receive.

This happens if a person intentionally:

• gives false or misleading information when applying for benefits or awards
• causes someone to give false or misleading information when applying for benefits or awards
• does not tell us about changes that they know or should know could affect the amount of benefit or award to be paid
• causes someone not to tell us about change they know or should know it could affect the amount of benefit or award to be paid

A case with more than three additional cared for people does not in itself indicate fraud.

However, as the total number of cared for people increases above four, it becomes less likely on the balance of probabilities that a carer is able to provide 20 hours of substantial and regular care a week for each cared for person. Unlimited awards of Carer Additional Person Payment may increase the risk of client-induced error or fraud. If fraud is suspected, standard guidance for fraud referral should be followed.