Night time care?

[Forestfruits7]

what is the definition of night time care? Does the carer have to be woken up?

Someone (or multiple people) needs to be awake some or all of the time otherwise they wouldn’t be able to provide the help or supervision.

What i mean is, does the carer have to be woken up from sleep to count or can they stay awake to care?

It could be either depending on the situation. For DLA, night is usually considered to be between 11pm and 7am but if your household all goes to bed before that at e.g. 10pm it can be possible to argue night starts then. Some will need care or supervision from someone awake all the time. Others won’t but do need care or supervision from someone for part of the night and they can be considered to have night care needs.

Ok thanks. Also, one last thing, would it be classed as night time needs if the carer has to stay awake at night time for many hours until the child falls asleep for care?

Depends on what time you are talking about. The child needing care or supervision e.g. 7.30-11pm is different to until 3am.

It can be until 3am or even later. Carer has to stay awake until asleep.

Does night time needs start when the rest of the household is in bed or asleep?

If DC is regularly awake until 3am or later you are massively overthinking this.

Night is classed as the “period of inactivity” that begins when “the household… closes down for the night” as per case law.

brum- Thankyou for your reply, although I’m not sure what you mean that I’m overthinking it?

I meant that if DC is regularly awake until 3am or later and needs care and/or supervision during that time, whether it is when the household goes to bed or goes to sleep is irrelevant. DC meets the threshold for having night needs and you are overthinking what the definition of nighttime is.