Statutory basis of adult social care guidanceCare and Support Statutory GuidanceCare Act Factsheets. Department of Health
4.14The basis for statutory guidance relating to adult social care is primarily section 78 of the Care Act 2014, which provides, inter alia, that ‘A local authority must act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State in the exercise of functions given to it by this Part or by regulations under this Part’ (section 78(1)).
4.15The current statutory guidance under the Care Act 2014 is the
Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
1Department of Health, Updated 24 March 2016.4.17More widely, section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act (LASSA) 1970 remains in force, making provision in relation to directions and guidance as follows:
Local authorities to exercise social services functions under guidance of Secretary of State.
7(1) Local authorities shall, in the exercise of their social services functions, including the exercise of any discretion conferred by any relevant enactment, act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State.
(1A) Section 78 of the Care Act 2014 applies instead of this section in relation to functions given by Part 1 of that Act or by regulations under that Part.
Directions by the Secretary of State as to exercise of social services functions
7A(1) Without prejudice to section 7 of this Act, every local authority shall exercise their social services functions in accordance with such directions as may be given to them under this section by the Secretary of State.
(2)Directions under this section‒
(a)shall be given in writing; and
(b)may be given to a particular authority, or to authorities of a particular class, or to authorities generally.
4.18The expression ‘social services functions’ is defined for the purposes of LASSA 1970 s7 as all those functions set out in Schedule 1 to LASSA 1970, which include functions relating to adults and, also, to children under, inter alia, the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004.