What is LSS?
LSS stands for the Act on Support and Services for Persons with Disabilities. The law came in 1994 and replaced the Care Act. There was then a difference in how people looked at the services for people with disabilities, where they had previously talked about "providing care" to now assume that the disabled person would have the right to choose how they wanted to live their life.
LSS includes the following ten interventions:
- Advice and other personal support
- Personal assistance
- Companion service
- Contact person
- Respite care at home
- Short-term stays outside the home,
- Short-term care for schoolchildren over 12 years old
- Accommodation in a family home or special needs housing
- Housing with special services for adults or other special
adapted housing - Daily activities
Read more and see the full text of the law on Parliament's website; Act (1993:387) on support and services for certain disabled persons.
What is the difference between LSS and SoL?
A person with a disability who needs help from society can apply for assistance via SoL (the Social Services Act) and/or LSS (the Act on Support and Services for Persons with Disabilities).
SoL is for everyone, LSS for people with disabilities
SoL is for everyone, while LSS is for certain people with disabilities. This means that anyone, the elderly, the sick, families, the unemployed, or anyone in need of help can apply for assistance through SoL. However, only certain groups of people are entitled to LSS assistance (See Chapter 4, Section 1, first paragraph, SoL and 1 § LSS.)
LSS is a rights law and SoL is a framework law
SoL does not regulate what rights a person has, but prescribes what obligations the municipalities have. The law regulates all social activities in the municipalities, such as support for children and young people, the elderly, addicts and people with disabilities. There is one exception in SoL, which concerns the right to financial assistance.
LSS as a rights law is characterized by the fact that people within the personal circles have the right to receive interventions specified in the law provided that a need exists (see LSS § 7).
For example, the difference regarding the contact person intervention may be different depending on the law. If a young person applies for the intervention under SoL because they need a contact person to help them break their behavior, they may not be granted it under SoL, the municipality may consider that another intervention meets the need and grant another intervention instead. On the other hand, a person who belongs to the LSS personality groups is entitled to the contact person intervention if they need it. All municipalities in Sweden are obliged to offer the 10 interventions specified in LSS. People belonging to the LSS personal circles thus know exactly what is available and the municipalities' self-determination is reduced.
Good versus decent living conditions
A further difference is that the interventions under LSS must ensure a person's good living conditions, unlike SoL interventions that provide reasonable living conditions
See section 7, second paragraph, LSS and Chapter 4, section 1, fourth paragraph SoL. In practice, this means that interventions under the LSS must be of such quality that the person gets better living conditions, while a person who has been granted support under the SoL, the interventions should only offer reasonable living conditions.
For example, the differences can be seen in the comparison between personal assistance and home care. In home care, a person is granted a minimum amount of time for cleaning and laundry, just enough to get by. Whereas in personal assistance, the extent is determined by the person's needs, it may be a person who has always been careful to keep clean and tidy around them and usually spends a few hours cleaning every week and can then also be granted it.
A difference in assessment of whether the need can be met by other means
Another difference is that a person is only granted SoL services if their needs cannot be met in any other way, while LSS services are granted as long as the needs are not already met.
This means that a person applying for a contact person under SoL who has a network of family, colleagues, friends or relatives may be deemed to have their needs met by them regardless of whether the person wants help from them and is then denied the service. If a person from a personal circle applies for a contact person under LSS, an assessment is made of whether the need is currently met, for example by asking whether the person wants and believes that their network meets the needs that exist. If the person answers no, they can be granted the intervention regardless of the existing network.
LSS and personal assistance
It is only through LSS that personal assistance can be granted.
People who belong to the LSS personal category and who have been granted personal assistance receive a decision on what the person has been granted support for and how long each intervention is expected to take. The person entitled to assistance and the responsible area manager then work together to determine how the interventions are to be carried out, at what time of day, etc. and this is written down in an implementation plan that all assistants at the person entitled to assistance must follow. Depending on the person entitled to assistance's ability to self-determine, the implementation plan is designed at the level of detail that is appropriate to the person entitled to assistance's needs and wishes.
The person entitled to assistance must be involved in the implementation of all measures relating to them, based on their abilities. In short, this means that the assistants must be the extended arm of the person entitled to assistance, so that the person entitled to assistance can live their life just as they would have done regardless of their disability. For example, it may be that the assistants do all the steps in, for example, baking and that the person entitled to assistance sits in the same room and watches and gets to smell, or it may be that the person entitled to assistance does most things on their own but needs assistance and support in performing the steps. How all interventions are carried out thus depends on the needs of the person entitled to assistance and how they want it.
Who bears what responsibility?
What responsibility do we have as assistance companies when it comes to LSS?
Sum assistance companies Carelli Assistans AB performs the assistance granted to those entitled to assistance as they wish to have it. We have a great responsibility both for the assistance of the person entitled to assistance but also as an employer for the personal assistants.
Regarding the assistance, much is about our responsibility to ensure that the assistance is of good quality, that there are competent staff in place, that the assistance provided follows the decision that the person entitled to assistance has.
Regarding our responsibility as an employer, we, like all employers, have to comply with applicable laws and guidelines, a large part of which is about systematic work environment management, but also about providing education and training for all employees.
What are the responsibilities of the municipality?
The municipality has an obligation to provide the ten services listed in the LSS. With regard to personal assistance, it is up to the person entitled to assistance to decide whether they wish to run their own assistance, leave it to the municipality where they live or hire an external assistance provider. If the person entitled to assistance chooses to let the municipality receive the assistance, the municipality must arrange this.
The municipality can in turn delegate the provision of personal assistance to an external provider. Carelli Assistans is a contractor for several municipalities in Sweden. And in cases where a person in these municipalities chooses the municipality as a provider, it is Carelli that is responsible for the operation. In these cases, the municipality has an obligation to continuously monitor how the intervention is carried out, but it is Carelli that is responsible for all parts of the assistance as well as the employer responsibility.