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County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0845 600 6400
Fax: 01670 511 413
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri : 8.30am - 5pm
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Arranging support for adults who are ill or disabled

also known as: Help at home, Needs assessment, Personal budgets, Self-directed support, Social Care, Social Services.

This page describes how we arrange support for people who have a disability or a long-term illness, and how we aim to make sure that people are in control of their own support arrangements.

Introduction

 

"Social care" support for ill or disabled adults in Northumberland is operated by Northumberland Care Trust under its partnership with the County Council.  (Support for working age adults with mental health problems is operated by the Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, under a separate partnership, but closely coordinated with the Care Trust service).

 

On this page you can find an introduction to the way we arrange support, and a series of information sheets explaining further details.  There are also links to useful information materials produced elsewhere.

 

Over the next two years we are looking to transform the way we provide services and support. This aims to benefit adults who are eligible for social care from Northumberland County Council by giving people more choice and control, and a personal budget for the support they receive. This is our Putting People First programme and is part of a major national change programme for adult social care aimed at improving support. Please note this link will take you to pages on Northumberland Care Trust website. Use this link for more information on Northumberland Care Trust’s services.

 

Self-directed support

 

People’s lives shouldn’t have to stop because they are disabled or have a long-term illness.  We aim to make sure that people can get the support they need to enable them to continue to live in the way they want.

 

We offer two kinds of support arrangement:

 

  • Crisis support for people who urgently need help after a health crisis or a serious accident.
  • Self-directed support for people with longer-term support needs.

 

Crisis support focuses on making sure that people’s immediate needs are met, and on helping them to recover and become independent.  Many people only need crisis support.

 

Self-directed support aims to put people in charge of their own support arrangements.  People are offered a personal budget which they are encouraged to manage themselves, or with help from family and friends, though we can also make arrangements on people's behalf.  We set the amount of the personal budget based on a shared assessment.

 

Personal budgets can be used flexibly to overcome the obstacles which illness or disability put in the way of living in the way you choose. For instance:

 

  • If you need support with day-to-day tasks, or if you need someone to be on hand to make sure you are safe, you can use a personal budget to employ someone or to make arrangements so that people you know can help you.

 

  • If you need support to take part in social, leisure or educational activities, you can use a personal budget to arrange that.

 

  • If family members or friends who usually provide you with support need a break, you can use a personal budget to make whatever arrangements are necessary.

 

You will need to agree with us a support plan setting out how you will use your personal budget. We will check that this is safe and legal. We can help people to draw up their support plans, or if you want you can do that yourself.

 

We will review your personal budget and your support plan at intervals to check whether any changes are needed.

 

Most people have to pay a contribution towards their personal budget. The amount of your contribution will depend on your financial circumstances. Some people will be assessed as being able to pay all the costs of their support themselves -- but we will still offer them help and advice if they want it.

 

If your disability or illness does not cause you any problems in critical areas of life, you may not be eligible for a personal budget. However we may still be able to give you advice about services and equipment which might help you, and about other possibilities such as adaptations to your home (which you may be able to get financial help for).

 

If your disability or illness is so serious that you cannot realistically stay in your own home, we can help you to move into supported housing or a care home.

 

We keep information about people we arrange help for in our files and on computer records.  This information is shared with other people who need to know it to make arrangements for your support, but is otherwise kept strictly confidential.  Ask any of our staff if you want to know what information is being held, or if you would like some information not to be shared.

 

Information sheets about support for ill or disabled people in Northumberland

 

The list of information sheets which are currently available or in preparation is below.  We are adding these to this page as they are completed.

 

Please send us an email if you would like copies of any of these information sheets in another format, such as tape or Braille, or if you would like them translated into another language.

 

The sheets with an asterix next to them (S1 to S5 and 2-4) are those which we now aim to give to everyone when they first ask us for support.

 

 

 

 

  • Information Sheet S4* - Safeguarding Adults

    Word (standard)      Word (large print)

 

  • Information Sheet S5* - contributing towards your personal budget (from 12 April 2010)

    Word (standard)      Word (large print)

 

  • Information Sheet S7 - Changing your support using a personal budget (updated 12 May 2010) 

    Word (standard)      Word (large print)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Information sheet 8 - help with moving into a care home
        Documents to follow

 

 

  • Information sheet 11 - person-centred planning for people with a learning disability
       PDF (standard)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related information sheets

 

The information sheets below are about separate Care Trust services which are linked to care management.


Information sheet - community rehabilitation service 
Word (standard)

 

Additional Northumberland information

 

Additional information to sheet 2 (your entitlement to help): The full guidance document used by care managers to decide about eligibility for help is also on this site.

 

Carers

 

To find out more about support for carers, click here.

 

Newsletters

 

Hearing Matters is a newsletter for people in Northumberland who are deaf or hard of hearing.

 

Notes for care managers and support staff

 

Each service user should be provided at the time of their initial assessment with a folder containing as many of the above information sheets as are relevant to their circumstances.  The basic set of information which should always be included is:

  • sheets S1-S5, and sheets 2-4 (the sheets asterisked in the list above).  (Only the information sheets themselves need to be in the basic pack, not any additional information shown in the list above).

 

Information published by the Government

 

Listed below are some particularly useful Government leaflets and publications which can be viewed or downloaded from the internet.  The Government now publishes a great deal of information electronically, and this list does not aim to be comprehensive.  These links will take you off our site.

 

 

Useful information from other organisations

 

We will be adding to this page links to some of the most useful information materials produced by non-Government organisations.  Most of these links will take you off our site.

 

  • Northumberland Golden Guide - a comprehensive information guide to services and support for older people in Northumberland, produced in association with Northumberland Council, Northumberland Care Trust and Age Concern.

 

Local organisations

 

Shelter, based in Newcastle, provide an advice service for people with housing problems (leaflet in Adobe Acrobat format).

 

National organisations

 

 

Contact details for services

 

If you want to contact us, the adult social care contacts page lists addresses and phone numbers of all local offices.