There are many ways that you can get support with your needs, and a conversation with adult social care can help you understand what help is available.
If you’d like a conversation with adult social care, call the helpdesk on 023 9268 0810 (Monday – Thursday 8.30am to 5pm, Friday 8.30am – 4.30pm).
For some of our Portsmouth residents, information and advice will be the service they need from adult social care, but for others we may need to assess your needs with you.
A needs assessment gives us the chance to find out how you’re coping with day-to-day tasks and what solutions we can find together to help you maintain your independence and wellbeing.
Someone else can request a needs assessment on your behalf, such as a friend or family member, but we need consent from you.
We want to hear your voice and views throughout the assessment to help get the best outcomes for you.
There’s no charge for a needs assessment.
We’ll ask you about what’s working well in your life, what’s not working so well, and what you’d like to change or improve. This can include how you’re managing everyday tasks like washing, dressing and cooking. We might ask you to describe how well you feel you do certain things, like making a cup of tea and getting out of a chair, and what things are most important to you.
You’re welcome to have a friend or relative with you. This can help if you’re not confident explaining your situation. They can also take notes for you.
If you can’t have a friend or relative with you, you can use an advocate. Advocates are people who speak up on your behalf. They can help you fill out forms and sit with you in meetings and assessments. If you’d like an advocate, let us know when you get in touch to request an assessment.
Some of the words and phrases used in adult social care may be new to you. If you’re not sure what something means, you might find this social care jargon dictionary useful.
If you need an interpreter or translator, we’ll help to arrange this.
We’ll share the results of the assessment with you.
If you have eligible needs, we’ll work with you to decide on the kind of support you might need.
If you don’t have eligible social care needs, we’ll still be able to provide you with information and advice about other services that may be able to help you.
You can request a copy of the assessment.
If we provide you with care and support, we’ll contact you again to see how things are going and to make sure that your care and support is working for you.
You’ll generally be expected to pay towards the cost of social care, although some services are provided free of charge.
If the care assessment recommends that you need support, we’ll then arrange a financial assessment for you to see whether you can get any funding towards your care and support.
Our finance and benefits team will do the assessment. They’ll also make sure you’re getting all the benefits that you’re entitled to and help you apply for any that you haven’t been receiving.
Visit our Paying for your social care page for more information.
If you’re paying the full cost, you can choose to arrange your care and support privately. You can still come to us for information and advice, even though you won’t be a client of adult social care.
You’ll also be able to ask us to arrange your care for you and pay us to do this for you. This is part of government changes called the ‘fair cost of care‘.
You can ask for a needs assessment or a financial assessment at any point if your situation changes.
