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Once you have contacted Adult Social Care, we will need to be clear what you need before support can be arranged.

A member of staff from the Council will meet with you, and if you wish with your family and friends or advocate, to help you to identify what support you need. It may also be helpful to have particular information from others such as such as your GP.

You will be helped to think about

• What your needs are
• What problems you are facing
• What help you have now
• What help you think you may need

We will use this information to assist you to identify services and /or support which will keep you as independent as possible.

It is important to note that although everyone is entitled to an assessment, not everyone will be eligible to receive support from Adult Social Care.

We will tell you if you are not eligible for a service and will offer advice and information about local opportunities which may meet your needs.

Standards for assessments

Assessments of need are carried out under the legislation of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and the Carers Recognition and Services Act (1995 and 2000).

At the beginning of your assessment you can expect:

• To understand how long the assessment will take. Usually this takes about 10 working days, but this may depend on you and your family and friends
• To be advised whether it would be useful to have specialist assessments (e.g. from an Occupational Therapist)
• To have any visits arranged at your convenience

During the assessment:

• Your views and wishes will be central
• You can have a friend, relative or someone else to help you speak if you wish
• We will arrange for an interpreter if you do not speak English or if you use sign language
• We will listen to the views of your family carers, and if appropriate, we will ask them what support they need
• We will give you information about the support arrangements that are available and any costs involved

After your assessment, you will be told approximately how much money we think is needed to provide the support you need. This is called the Indicative Budget. If you want the Council to consider paying towards your support arrangements then you will be referred foto the Financial Assessment Team. They will then check that you are getting all the benefits you are entitled to, and determine what contribution you can afford to pay towards the costs of your support.

After you have been given the indicative allocation, you will be supported to think about how you want your support to be provided.

Planning your support

If you are eligible for support through Adult Social Care, after your assessment we will work with you (and anybody else you choose to help you) to plan how you want your needs to be met. Because everybody and their personal circumstances are different, we expect that their plans will be different. Links to information on some of the different ways that people can be supported are on the left hand side of the screen.

When you have drafted your plan, this has to be agreed by a senior manager: this is to make sure that it meets your needs, in ways that are legal and affordable.

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