What is Adult Social Care?
Adult social care is help for adults who need extra support because they have disabilities, mental health problems, or are getting older. This help can include things like eating, washing, dressing, and doing household chores.
Here are some types of care and support:
- Personal care – Help with washing, dressing, and eating.
- Domestic support – Help with cleaning and shopping.
- Community support – Activities to keep people active and involved in their community.
- Residential care – Living in a care home where people look after you.
- Reablement services – Short-term help to get better after being sick or in the hospital.
Care can be given by professional carers or by family and friends.
The Care Act 2014
We follow the rules as set out in the Care Act 2014 which came into force in April 2015. The Care Act brings together lots of Government Acts that were written between 1948 and 2014 into one document. It has revised some areas, making them clearer, and introduced new requirements.
You can find more information on our Welcome to Social Care Information sheet.
Who can get help from the council
A care and support assessment helps us to understand your support and care needs. If you need long term care and support, we can help if you meet the National Eligibility Criteria.
We use national eligibility criteria to work out if you can have our financial support to meet your care and support needs.
You may be eligible for help if:
- your need for support results from illness or disability, and
- you need support to achieve outcomes in two or more areas of life, and
- failure to achieve these outcomes would result in a significant impact on your wellbeing
You can find out more on our Help with paying for care and support page.
How we understand your care needs
If you have a care need that significantly affects your wellbeing, someone from our Adult Social Care Team can talk with you. When you talk to the team you can include the people who matter to you. We will explore lots of different ways that might help you. This is called a Care and Support Assessment.
Ask us a question about Social Care
Or you can email us at adults@somerset.gov.uk to arrange to speak to someone about what matters to you and what support is available.
Follow any of the links in our Care and support for adults section to read more detailed information about Adult Social Care support.
Understanding and being heard
Advocacy is when someone independent helps another person to understand what they are being told and supports them to make sure their opinions are heard.
Understanding the care and support system can often be daunting, especially if you have no one you can talk things through with. Our staff will always try and help you themselves. But by talking with an advocate, they may be able to cover – and perhaps explain in better ways – some of the complex processes and possibilities for you.
You can find out more on the Connect Somerset – making decisions page.
Independent advocacy service
If we think you would benefit from the support that an advocate can provide, and you have no one else available to you who can do this, such as a family member or friend, we will ask an advocate to become involved. In Somerset, our independent advocacy service is provided by Swan Advocacy.
Swan Advocacy contact details
Address: Somerset Office, Hi-point, Thomas Street, Taunton, TA2 6HB
Phone: 0333 344 7928
Email: Somerset@swanadvocacy.org.uk
Website: swanadvocacy.org.uk