Social care

Social care

People require care and support for a number of reasons, whether it’s age, disability, health or personal situation they find themselves in. If you think you or someone you know needs help, support and/or assistance to live independently or carry out daily tasks then you need to contact Nottinghamshire County Council.

They will ask a few questions initially to determine the type of support you might require and whether you are eligible to receive support from the Council in the first instance. A social worker, or similar, may visit to talk with you in more detail and complete a community care assessment which looks at the following areas to determine what your needs are:

  • Personal care and household routines
  • Night time support
  • Having a meal
  • Parenting
  • Keeping safe
  • Living independently and keeping control
  • Being part of the community, work, education and learning

At the time this was written (March 2014), Nottinghamshire County Council will only support individuals whose needs are identified as critical or substantial. If you have been assessed as having low or moderate needs then you may not be eligible for support.

A financial assessment will also take place to determine if you need to pay any money towards your support.

If you are entitled to support then you will be offered a personal budget. There are different ways you can have a personal budget but the most flexible, whereby you have more choice and control over how the money is spent, is called a direct payment.

As part of the assessment process, the worker must also tell you how much money is in your personal budget. At first this will be an estimate (an indicative amount) until you have thought about the type of services you might require to meet your needs. This is where you need to start thinking about the final stage of the process, the support plan.

The personal budget will only be confirmed once a support plan has been agreed. You can either do your own support plan, ask friends/familiy to help, your social worker or other organisations. A support plan can be as long or as short as you like. Include pictures, videos, drawings, cut-outs to illustrate what you would like your support to look like. It could even be electronic or online using new technology. However you do it, you need to consider the following things:

  • Information about you and your life
  • What you want to achieve or change with any support (your outcomes)
  • How you will manage and arrange the support (will you do it yourself or will you need some help?)
  • How much the support will cost
  • A back up plan in case things go wrong or there is an emergency
  • And finally, how all this will happen

We have created a template that you can use to create your own support plan. Please click here to download a copy: Support Plan Template

Personal budgets will be reviewed by Nottinghamshire County Council but if your circumstances or health changea at any time, contact them to make them aware.

If you do not agree with a decision that has been made, either about eligibility, the amount of personal budget that has been allocated, a particular service that has been arranged or any other part of the process, you have the right to make a complaint. You can do this by telling a member of staff at Nottinghamshire County Council, completing an online form or by calling them. More details can be found here: http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/thecouncil/contact/comments/adult-social-care/