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Assessments of need

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If you would like to apply for help from Cumbria County Council Adult Social Care, you should contact our Customer Services team at your nearest Cumbria County Council Adult Social Care office and ask for an assessment of need.  We then follow a three stage process called self directed support which leads to you having a personal budges:

1  Assessing your needs

The first thing we have to do is assess your needs. One of our social workers or social care workers will usually do this. Your assessment makes sure you are eligible for services from us.  As we cannot provide services to everyone, we use eligibility criteria under national guidelines called Fair Access to Care Services to decide who is eligible for services.  These help us to make sure we provide services to those most in need.

Your assessment also helps us – working with you – to identify:

  • what your needs are and
  • an indication of how much money we could make available to pay for services to meet these needs - this is called your indicative amount.

2  Planning your support

The next stage is to put together a support plan. This will say how your needs will be met, using what services, how much these will cost and how much you might need to contribute. You can produce your own support plan or you can ask for help with this.

3  Arranging your support

Once we’ve agreed your support plan with you, we will make available the money needed to pay for the services in your plan. This money is your personal budget and this is then used to arrange your services. To arrange your services, you can:

  • ask for money from us – in the form of a direct payment – so you can arrange your own services;
  • ask us to make the arrangements on your behalf; or
  • a combination of these.

How long will it take?

We can respond quickly to your enquiry if it is urgent.  In an emergency, we aim to respond within 24 hours of your enquiry.  For all other requests we aim to:

  • start your assessment of need within two days of your enquiry; and
  • complete your assessment within 28 days.         

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