Adult Social Care: An Introduction
"Social care" support for ill or disabled adults in
Northumberland is operated by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation
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 Foundation Trust, under a
separate partnership).
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.
We are currently transforming 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 part of a major national change programme for
adult social care aimed at improving support.
'Self-directed support': what support is available?
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.
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.
How much might I have to pay?
Most people have to pay a
contribution towards the cost of their services,
but people would not be expected to pay more than they can
reasonably afford based on their income and savings - the amount
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. As a general guide, as at April 2012, people with savings
of over £23,250* were expected to pay the maximum
charge. More information about charges is given in our
information sheets below.
*Please check Information Sheet S5 on
contributing towards your personal budget, for the latest
information on levels of savings and charging.
Our Social Care Information Sheets
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 to: Socialcare@northumbria.nhs.uk 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 S1*
- Short-term support and crisis support at
home
Word
(standard) Word (large
print)
- Information Sheet S4* - Safeguarding
Adults
Word
(standard) Word (large
print)
- Information Sheet S5* - contributing towards your
personal budget
From 8 April
2013: Word
(standard) Word (large
print)
- Information Sheet S7 - Changing your support using
a personal budget
Word
(standard) Word (large
print)
about eligibility for help is also on
this site.
(see also - Have Your
Say leaflet)
- 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)
- Information sheet 29 - Making allowance
for the cost of disability
Word
(standard) Word (large
print)
[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 about Care Homes
Care homes provide care, accommodation and
board for people who need a high level of support. They are
required by law to be registered with the Care Quality
Commission (CQC).
People who live in Northumberland and need this level of
care can get financial support from the County Council, through its
partnership with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, if
they are not able to afford the fees themselves. You should
contact our care management service if you wish
to explore this option.
A complete list of registered care homes in
all parts of England is available on the CQC website, which
also holds inspection reports providing detailed information about
the services offered by each home and the quality of what is
provided.
Click here to find out more information about Care
Homes in Northumberland and to find out about which homes
Northumberland County Council contract with and how we check the
quality of care.
Support for Carers
To find out more about support for carers, click here.
Additional Northumberland information
Get involved and have your say
Information about how to get involved in helping shape services
through one of the service user forums across Northumberland is
available by clicking
here.
Northumberland Golden Guide
Northumberland
Golden Guide - a comprehensive information guide to services
and support for older people in Northumberland, produced in
association with Northumberland Council, Northumbria Healthcare NHS
Foundation Trust, Age UK, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS
Foundation Trust and ISOS.
Northumberland Life
Northumberland Life is a
local web based directory of groups and services in and around
Northumberland. It is a valuable reference for anyone who wants to
know what Northumberland's communities can offer, from parents
looking for activities for young children to older people looking
for like-minded groups; from people who want to take up new
activities to people who want to make contact with others affected
by the same disability or illness.
The National Careline
The National Careline is
a not for profit company offering information about care and
support for older people, their carers and their families. It aims
to fill the information and advice gap for older people and their
relatives who are seeking to find their way through the care maze.
The National Careline also provides a wealth of extra information
that users may find beneficial in their support and care of the
older person.
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.
National organisations
- Age Uk produce a series of
information covering a wide variety of topics of particular
interest to older people, though some would be of interest to
anyone who has a disability or illness, or is caring for someone
who has.
- The UK Alzheimer's Disease Society
website has useful information for people with this condition and
their relatives and carers, as does the Alzheimer's Disease International
website
- The Stroke Association website.
Contact Adult Social Care
Telephone: 01670 536 400
Email address: Socialcare@northumbria.nhs.uk
