Money & rights
The Care Act route map
Care and support in England runs through fourteen steps, from the duty to promote well-being to the point where a decision is challenged. This page lines up each step with the section of the Care Act 2014 that carries it, and dates the version it was read from.
Last checked on 3 September 2026
What is this map for?
Most of the difficulty in English social care is not that the rules are secret. They are published in full, free, and in one place. The difficulty is that they are published as a statute of more than a hundred sections and as guidance of several hundred pages, and neither of them is arranged as a journey. A person who has just been told that an assessment will happen in six weeks has no way of knowing which of those hundred sections is about them.
This page is the missing arrangement. It takes the fourteen points at which something actually happens to an adult who needs support, and puts next to each one the section of the Care Act 2014 that carries it. Every other guide on this site links back to a row of this table, and the table links back out to the guide that develops it.
How do you read a section number?
A section is the unit an Act of Parliament is divided into. When a social worker says the assessment duty, they mean section 9. When a letter refers to your personal budget, the authority for that phrase is section 26. Knowing the number turns a general disagreement into a specific one, and a specific disagreement is the only kind that gets answered in writing.
Two cautions about the text itself. First, legislation.gov.uk publishes a revised version, and the version this page was read from is marked Latest available (Revised) as at 2 September 2026. Second, that revised text still carries amendments made by the Health and Care Act 2022 that have not been applied, which means the printed page and the law in force can differ on those points. That is stated on the contents page of the Act, and it is the reason every source line here names a version and a date rather than just a link.
Care Act 2014, notice on the contents page. Version Latest available (Revised) as at 2 September 2026, legislation.gov.uk, read on 3 September 2026.
What are the fourteen steps?
The table scrolls sideways in its own frame on a narrow screen. The first column stays with you.
| Step | What happens | Who decides | Care Act 2014 section | Statutory guidance | Time limit | If it stalls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Well-being | Well-being is the purpose the council has to work towards in every decision it takes about an adult. | The council | Section 1, Promoting individual well-being | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask which part of well-being the decision was weighed against, and ask for the answer in writing. |
| 2. Prevention | Support that keeps a need from growing, before any assessment of eligible needs. | The council | Section 2, Preventing needs for care and support | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask what preventive support the council runs locally, and whether it is free at the point of use. |
| 3. Asking for an assessment | The needs of an adult are assessed. This is the step most people mean when they say they have asked for help. | The council | Section 9, Assessment of an adult's needs for care and support | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the date the request was recorded and the name of the team holding it. |
| 4. The carer's assessment | A person who cares for another adult is assessed in their own right, separately. | The council | Section 10, Assessment of a carer's needs for support | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the carer assessment to be recorded as a separate request. |
| 5. Refusing an assessment | An adult can refuse an assessment. The Act names the situation and what follows from it. | The adult, then the council | Section 11, Refusal of assessment | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the refusal and its consequences to be set out in writing before anything is closed. |
| 6. Being helped to take part | Independent advocacy, where an adult would otherwise have substantial difficulty taking part. | The council | Section 67, Involvement in assessments, plans etc. | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask which advocacy arrangement the council uses, and ask before the assessment starts. |
| 7. Eligibility | The national criteria are applied to what the assessment found. | The council | Section 13, The eligibility criteria, with regulation 2 of the 2015 regulations for adults and regulation 3 for carers | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the eligibility decision in writing, criterion by criterion. |
| 8. Money | What an adult can afford is looked at separately from what an adult needs. | The council | Section 17, Assessment of financial resources | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the calculation, not only the result. |
| 9. The duty to meet needs | Where the conditions are met a duty arises, and the Act also carries a power to meet other needs. | The council | Section 18, Duty to meet needs for care and support, section 19, Power to meet needs, and section 8, How to meet needs | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask whether the decision was taken under the duty or under the power, and under which section. |
| 10. The plan | A care and support plan is prepared, and the Act sets out steps the council has to take. | The council, with the adult | Section 24, The steps for the local authority to take, and section 25, Care and support plan, support plan | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for a copy of the plan, and ask for the parts you disagree with to be recorded in it. |
| 11. The personal budget | The plan carries a personal budget: the cost of meeting the needs the council has decided to meet. | The council | Section 26, Personal budget | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask how the figure was reached and what it is expected to buy. |
| 12. Direct payments | The budget can be paid across, rather than arranged by the council. The Act covers adults with capacity to request them and adults without. | The council, on request | Section 31, Adults with capacity to request direct payments, section 32, Adults without capacity, and section 33, Direct payments: further provision | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the conditions attached to the payment in writing before it starts. |
| 13. Review | The plan is reviewed. A review is the step at which a plan can be changed. | The council | Section 27, Review of care and support plan or of support plan | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask for the date of the last review and the date of the next one. |
| 14. When it goes wrong | Safeguarding enquiries sit in the Act, alongside a section titled Part 1 appeals and a section on the Human Rights Act 1998. | The council, then its complaints procedure | Section 42, Enquiry by local authority, section 68, Safeguarding enquiries and reviews, section 72, Part 1 appeals, and section 73, Human Rights Act 1998 | Guidance, 22 July 2025 | None set in the Act | Ask the council for a copy of its complaints procedure, and put the complaint in writing with dates. |
Section titles taken one by one from the contents page of the Care Act 2014, Version Latest available (Revised) as at 2 September 2026, legislation.gov.uk, read on 3 September 2026. Eligibility regulations: Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015, SI 2015 No. 313, text as made, legislation.gov.uk, read on 3 September 2026. Guidance: Care and support statutory guidance, Department of Health and Social Care, first published 29 July 2016, last updated 22 July 2025, GOV.UK, read on 3 September 2026.
Why do the time limit cells say none set in the Act?
Because that is what the reading supports. The sections listed in the fourth column carry duties and powers; the number of days a council has to do each thing is, where it exists at all, a matter for the statutory guidance rather than for the Act. This handbook prints a timescale only once the chapter that sets it has been opened, quoted and dated. Until then the cell says what is true, which is that the Act itself does not set one.
That is a deliberate choice and it costs the page something: a reader who wanted to know how long an assessment takes leaves without an answer. An invented figure would cost more. A wrong number in a letter to a council is worse than no number, because it moves the argument onto ground you cannot defend.
Where does the statutory guidance fit?
Between the Act and the practice. The Care and support statutory guidance is the document councils in England work from, and it was last updated on 22 July 2025 after a first publication on 29 July 2016. Its update date is worth writing down: advice given before an update may describe a version that has since changed.
Care and support statutory guidance, Department of Health and Social Care, first published 29 July 2016, last updated 22 July 2025, GOV.UK, read on 3 September 2026.
The chapter numbers are not printed in the table yet, for the same reason as the timescales. Naming a chapter is a claim about a document of several hundred pages, and this handbook makes that claim only for chapters it has opened. As each one is read, the row gains its chapter and the change is logged in the dated notes of this handbook, with the date.
What can you do when a step stalls?
The last column of the table is deliberately made of actions rather than of rights. Asking for a decision in writing, asking which section it was taken under, and asking for the calculation rather than the result are three requests that cost nothing and change what happens next, because they convert a conversation into a record.
Two of the fourteen rows carry more than an action. Step 14 lists section 42, Enquiry by local authority, and section 68, Safeguarding enquiries and reviews, which are the safeguarding sections. It also lists section 72, titled Part 1 appeals, and section 73, on the Human Rights Act 1998. This handbook prints those titles and stops there. What section 72 provides, and whether it is in force, is a reading that has not been done here yet, and a page that guessed would be worse than a page that says where the answer lives. Beyond the Act, a council runs a complaints procedure of its own: ask for a copy of it, and put dates in the complaint.
Care Act 2014, sections 42, 68, 72 and 73, section titles only. Version Latest available (Revised) as at 2 September 2026, legislation.gov.uk, read on 3 September 2026.
Which pages develop each step?
The map is a starting point, not a substitute for the guides. Steps 1, 3, 6 and 7 are developed in your rights under the law. Steps 9, 10 and 13 are developed in the care and support plan. Steps 8 and 11 belong to the personal budget, and step 12 to direct payments. Step 6 has its own page in independent advocacy. Steps 13 and 14 are where changing your support begins.
How is this page kept up to date?
By two dates, checked together. The first is the version line on the contents page of the Act, which is why this page prints it rather than a bare link. The second is the last updated date of the statutory guidance. When either moves, the rows are read again and a dated note is published. The stamp at the top of this page is the date of the last such reading, and it is the only date on the page that describes this handbook rather than a source.
What this page is
This page explains what the law says. It is not legal advice about your situation, and it does not estimate whether anyone is eligible for anything. The Care Act 2014 applies in England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own law and are not described here.
Sources read for this page
- Care Act 2014, revised text on legislation.gov.uk, version Latest available (Revised) as at 2 September 2026
- Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015, SI 2015 No. 313, text as made
- Care and support statutory guidance, Department of Health and Social Care, updated 22 July 2025
Each source above was opened on 3 September 2026. Where a page here prints a section number or a figure, the source line beside it names the version that number was read from.