Introduction

If you are not sure what support you need, or haven’t been able to find the right help, then we’d be happy to help.

Step 1: Get in touch

Step 2: Needs assessment

To make sure we understand what your needs are, we’ll complete a needs assessment. You'll be asked about:

• the things you can do now
• what you need help to do
• anything that you would like to be able to do in the future.

This will help us to work out:

• what support you need
• whether you can access this support in your local community (often these are free services)
• if you need to access any services run by us
• the cost of the support you require.

Step 3 - Care and support plan

Your needs assessment will give us an idea of the care and support you need, and we’ll be able to estimate how much it will cost.

The cost of your care and support is known as your personal budget. You will not have your personal budget amount confirmed until your financial assessment has been carried out.

You can, however, use the amount we estimate to put together a care and support plan - we’ll help you to do this.

The plan will show us how you intend to use the money to meet your care needs, and will be used alongside your financial assessment to confirm your final personal budget amount.

Step 4: Financial assessment

Once we have an idea of how much your personal budget will be, we will then carry out your financial assessment. There are 4 different financial assessments - the one you have depends on the type of care you need.

A financial assessment looks at your financial situation to work out if you can afford to pay anything towards your personal budget. Most people must contribute something towards their care, and some are required to pay the full amount.

Step 5: Personal budget

We'll look at your care and support plan to check we are happy with how you have planned to spend your personal budget. We’ll then approve it and confirm the final amount for your personal budget in writing.