How the social care process works

Choices for Care

If you would like information and advice without having to go through a full assessment of your social care needs, please visit our Choices for Care page.

Choices for Care, provides you with online support to help you to identify the support you need. This includes relevant services from the Live Well directory.

You can also choose to submit the information you provide to the Council’s Adult Social Care service, who will then contact you to consider your situation further.

If you or someone you care for needs some extra care and support, you can contact us for advice, information and an assessment of your situation, if required.

You may need some extra care and support if you are struggling with aspects of your daily life due to:

• illness
• a disability
• frailty
• a fall or an accident
• recovering from an operation
• a major change in your life
• a crisis
• a health condition

If you have physical difficulties which impact on daily living activities in your home, you can contact the Occupational Therapy Service who will provide advice, assessments and solutions, including equipment and adaptations, either on the phone, or by visiting you at home.

If your needs are more complex, we will arrange for a trained assessor to visit you and undertake an assessment of your situation.

To be eligible for social care support from us, your needs will be assessed against national eligibility criteria. If you don’t meet the criteria, we will still give you advice and information, and help you to find services in the community, some of which may be free, which can help to keep you as independent and active as possible.

You might also wish to visit a local retailer who can provide simple aids for daily living. 

You could also be referred to the reablement service, a free short term service that provides support with the aim of helping people learn or relearn skills to keep them independent.

If you do meet the criteria, we will work with you to decide which services would help you most to meet your needs and achieve your outcomes. These can be a mixture of formal and informal community support services, some of which are free. These will form your Care and Support Plan.

We will carry out a financial assessment to determine whether you have to contribute financially to your care and support. This will be based on your financial circumstances. We will also provide advice on where to get independent financial advice, and will work with you to ensure that you are in receipt of all the benefits to which you are entitled.

Your situation will be reviewed on a regular basis, to ensure that your needs are being met. You can also request another assessment if your circumstances change.