Adult Social Care Offer - Print version

The Coventry Offer explains in brief what you can expect from Coventry City Council’s Adult Social Care and Support Services.

Although it refers to the Council provision of adult care and support for those over age of 18 - many people with care and support needs are helped by other organisations.

This includes other services, from NHS services to housing providers, voluntary and third sector organisations as well as informal networks that may be involved in supporting somebody.

It outlines the wider health and care services’ vision and principles – in other words what we are aiming to achieve, and then translates these into our approach to supporting people who come to Adult Social Care seeking support. This includes for their carers too.

The reason that we have summarised what we offer in this way, is to ensure that people with care and support needs, and their families, understand the support that is available.

We want to give reassurance to those residents who use the Council’s Adult Social Care Support Services and to give people realistic expectations about how these may be accessed.

It is explained in three parts, each of which can be read independently or as a whole depending on what you want to find out. The parts are as follows:

1. Part one Our approach: This part outlines our overall approach to Adult Social Care and support, our vision as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire health and care system and how we aim to work with people with care and support needs, and with their carers.
2. Part two How we will deliver our offer: This part provides more practical information about the types of support available and what you can expect if you contact us for support.
3. Part three Useful information: Social Care can be complicated. This part aims to provide some basic and useful information regarding social care, including our legal duties, how to make contact and other organisations that may be able to support you.

To find out a bit more about the offer, watch this short introductory video from our Head of Adult Social Care and Support. 

Access the video transcript [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/directory-record/59583/sally-caren-discusses-the-adult-social-care-offer]

Download printable versions and posters of the Adult Social Care Offer [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/7250/adult-social-care-offer-2022]

Our approach

Our approach to adult care and support  

Adult Social Care in Coventry is one of several health and care organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire, making up the Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership. This Partnership is working to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents.

In all our efforts to achieve this we share a common vision:

‘We will do everything in our power to enable people across Coventry and Warwickshire to pursue happy, healthy lives and put people at the heart of everything we do.’

In working to this vision, we believe that all our residents deserve to:

• Lead a healthy, independent, and fulfilled life
• Be part of a strong community
• Experience effective and sustainable health and care services

To deliver this, our main aim is to help people achieve the outcomes that matter to them in their lives.

Our work, at every level, intends to provide support to the residents of Coventry, in the least intrusive manner possible, based on the assets, resources and abilities that are available to them.

Our focus is on the promotion of independence and this continues to be at the heart of the way we work and provide support.

We believe in the importance of the principles of diversity and inclusion underpinning everything we do. Everyone should have access to the support and care they need regardless of their circumstances. We have a responsibility to promote equality and diversity across all areas of our work, providing a service that is fair, personalised and meets diverse needs. This will include providing access to interpretation, translation and advocacy to ensure our support is accessible for all.

When someone contacts the Council, we will consider the following:

1. People are part of families and part of communities and, therefore, care and support provided by the Council should primarily be a means to help people live the lives they want with their families and friends; enjoying the city and neighbourhoods in which they live.
2. Often the best solutions will be found in the community, rather than through statutory Council services. This often assists people to continue to live and be an active part of a wider community network.  

What you can expect from us in delivering our approach

Our approach to Adult Social Care and support is based on the following commitments:

• Adopt a strengths-based approach and promote independence – this means we will support people to gain or regain the skills required to live as independently as possible making the best use of what is available in local communities. We will focus on what is important to people and what they can do. We are committed to enabling people to have the skills they need to live as independently as possible.
• We will work with people to ensure their living environment is suitable - this may involve undertaking some adaptations to people’s homes and providing equipment to enable people to live an independent life more easily. Where someone’s existing home is not suitable, we will explore how we may be able to adapt the current environment and if we are unable to do so, we will then support people to explore alternative living accommodation options.
• Enabling people to live well and age well by putting them at the heart of what we do - we will help people think about their need for care and support and plan for how they can live the best life possible both now and into older age. People will need to make their own decisions, where they are able to do so, about the sort of life they want to live. We will support people to have choice and control over their own health and wellbeing, enabling people to take responsibility and find solutions that work best for them.
• Making the best use of all resources - We aim to provide the right amount of support to meet people’s needs and outcomes (what you want to achieve). To provide the most appropriate care and support, we will consider costs and look for innovative ways, including the use of technology, to deliver care and support.
• Joined up and connected care and support – We will work closely within the Council and with different organisations, including the NHS, voluntary organisations, care providers, community groups and local businesses, to support you to achieve what is important to you. We will work with the organisations that have been chosen to provide services to make sure they are safe, sustainable and of the right quality and will act if there are concerns.
• Keeping you safe - We will ensure the safety and wellbeing of our most vulnerable people. We will help people stay safe from harm and abuse, working alongside other organisations when we need to, and supporting people to make their own choices. This is central to everything we do.
• Carers at the heart of everything we do - We recognise, value and support the vital role of unpaid carers and the huge difference they make to people’s lives and to their communities. We will support them to continue caring, as well as support them if the caring responsibilities change or end.
• Committed workforce - A valued and respected workforce is critical to the delivery of Adult Social Care. We will support and develop the workforce, both our own and those of our partners, wherever possible to ensure they have the necessary skills, knowledge, values and attributes to provide effective care and support.

How will we engage with you and our communities?

Adult Social Care is a vital lifeline to many people across our city. We are committed to ensuring our support and services meet our standards and those of our residents. We will work closely with users of services, their carers and our wider communities to understand the value and benefits of the services we provide. We will use feedback from what people tell us to inform how we design and deliver services in the future.

There are three key elements to how we will make this happen:

1. We will involve experts by experience, talk to them and get feedback when we are looking to develop new approaches.
2. We will use feedback from individuals care and support reviews and provider quality assurance visits.
3. We will deliver on our pledges as outlined in our ‘Engagement, Involvement and Co-Production Approach’ This will ensure services take on board what our residents want to achieve.

What we will ask of you?

Effective Adult Social Care and support is a partnership between the City Council, the resident, their families and carers and providers of care and support.

In working with you to provide effective care and support we will look to yourself and your family carer network to help us by:

• Exploring local community support networks that can fulfil some of your needs, such as accessing community groups.
• Receiving support from your family and carers where it is appropriate and possible to do so.
• Looking after yourself and leading a heathy lifestyle. By working together, we can help you live an independent life within your own community.  

How we will deliver our offer

What support is available?

A variety of services are available to support people, based on their needs and what they want to achieve.

A list of these services is below, visit care and support [/careandsupport] for more information.

• Information and advice through the Council and our partners.
• Support for unpaid carers, for example, respite and emotional support through the Carers’ Trust.
• Equipment and adaptations around the home – for more independent living.
• Day opportunities, for example, day centres or personalised support in the day for adults with disabilities and older people.
• Direct payments where people receive funding directly to organise social care and support services.
• Home support, for example, to support with personal care and meal preparation.
• Reablement support, to enable people to regain skills that may have been lost or reduced, develop existing skills, or learn new skills so that they are able to remain as independent as possible.
• Housing with care, where people have their own flat and there is care available on site.
• Shared Lives Scheme [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/sharedlives]
• Care homes including residential and nursing homes.

We also provide a range of support for carers to support them with their carer’s duties including:

• Information and advice through the Council and our partners.
• Group-based support where we connect you to other carers for support.
• Training so that you have the skills to undertake caring duties – for example manual handling.
• Access to counselling services.
• Contingency planning through our CRESS (Carers Response Emergency Support Service).
• A Direct Payment to meet your needs as a carer.
• Opportunities to take a break such as residential respite or hours of support to take a break throughout the week (as part of a joint assessment).
• Providing direct support to the person you are caring for (as part of a joint assessment).

Helping you with care and support

When you first contact Adult Social Care

Contacting us can happen in different ways, this may be either you or a carer or family member making independent and direct contact. However, Adult Social Care support can also be accessed following contact with other professionals, for example hospital staff, your GP or other health professionals who recognise the need for assistance for you to continue to live independently or to enable an assessment of your ongoing needs.

Contact can be made via our health and social care website [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/health-social-care] or directly to Adult Social Care Direct on: 024 7683 3003. E-mail: ascdirect@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:ascdirect@coventry.gov.uk]

Our approach means that we will look at ways that could support you to live without the need for care services and would reduce the need for you to receive longer-term care and give you the opportunity to maintain or regain your independence.

For example, we may provide information, advice and guidance, on changes you could make at home or equipment that may help you with the things you find difficult or make it safer for you.

We might talk to you about telecare [/telecare] which is equipment linked to your phone line and a 24 hour monitoring centre that can respond to problems, for example, if you fall over at home.

You can have a pendant alarm to press in an emergency but there is also a range of sensors that can detect if you may be in difficulty and raise the alert for you. Trained operators can contact your family or the emergency services if necessary.

We may also talk to you about ‘brain in hand [https://braininhand.co.uk/]’ which offers a level of support and reassurance via an app downloaded to your phone. It may be that some support is provided for a brief period that could help you regain the skills and confidence to manage more for yourself. This could involve an Occupational Therapist visiting you to practice using the equipment or doing things differently, or a support worker from a care agency who may come to help you with things like washing and dressing until you are able to do them for yourself. As part of that offer we:

• will agree a plan with you about how you will be supported, what outcomes you want to achieve and how long the support period will last, usually no more than six weeks. There will usually be no charge for this service.
• will stay connected with you during this time to review how you are getting on and whether your outcomes have been met. If they have, we will conclude your assessment and make sure that you have all the information, advice and equipment you need to continue to manage at home. You will receive a copy of your assessment and a summary of the support and information that has been provided. The assessment will help you to explain your situation and what you want to achieve and to think about the choices available to you.

If you are admitted to hospital and need support on discharge, this can be arranged by either the team of professionals based at the hospital or Adult Social Care.

If you need ongoing care, we will look at whether you need further support and move on to the next stage. This stage of the assessment includes making decisions about your ongoing needs and whether you are eligible for continued support from the Council. It will also involve having a financial assessment [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/money-legal-matters/financial-assessment-overview] to find out if you need to pay towards the cost of your care.

Assessing your needs

If you appear to have ongoing care and support needs, then we will provide a care and support assessment. To assist us all to determine what support you can receive through the Council, we will use the guidance set out in the Care Act 2014 [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/contents/enacted] (please see further information below). The Care Act 2014 also sets out the basis for understanding how we will work out how much you will pay towards your care.

The assessment will help you explain your situation and what you want to achieve and think about the choices available to you.

If you are in hospital and need support on discharge, we will make sure support is in place, when it is needed, so you can return home safely.

If this isn’t possible, we will arrange for you to move to a temporary care setting, so you don’t have to stay longer in hospital than you need to. We will identify which one of the discharge pathways best meet your needs identified at the point of discharge from hospital, this will then be followed by a care and support assessment if it appears that you may have an ongoing need for care and support.

We will work with you to find your own solutions, to enable you to build on positive areas of your life and identify whether you are eligible for support provided by the Council.

We will also consider the needs and views of family members or others who support you with aspects of your everyday life.

We support this process by enabling you to have control over the assessment process. To aid this we have created an online assisted self-assessment. The assessment form uses visuals and animations to support you to provide us with information about your strengths and needs. We will then use this information to help us understand how we can support you in the most effective way.

We will offer unpaid/family carers their own assessment and information and if appropriate, support for their needs. The assessment might involve meeting with a social care professional at your home, but where appropriate could also be done in other ways such as through a telephone assessment or a video call or an online questionnaire.

The means of assessment we will offer will be based on information you and professionals, already involved in your care, provide to us as well as any other concerns raised, but we will be clear why we propose these options and ensure we discuss them with you or the person who supports you.

If you require independent support to help you to understand information or to express your views, we will make sure this is available for you. We can support you with this by involving a suitable family member or friend or Advocate if needed.

If you need to pay for some of the support we provide for you we will ask you to complete a financial assessment [https://coventry.bettercare.org.uk/#/home]. That way we can work out how much you can pay. If you don’t want to tell us about your money, you will have to pay for all of your care. You can still get information and advice about services available from us.

Supporting Carers

We will offer you a carer’s assessment if you are providing unpaid care. We will talk to you about how you want your assessment to be undertaken. This might be alongside the person you are caring for, sometimes called a combined or joint assessment or you may wish to have your assessment undertaken separately.

We will explore what is important to you, how your caring role impacts you, what parts of your caring role you want to maintain, need support with or want to end. We will explore how regularly you are able to take breaks and the other areas of your life that are important to you. Will also help you think about the future and what support you might need in the event of an emergency.

We will complete a support plan with you if required (and jointly with the person you are caring for) and will review this as your needs change over time.

We work in partnership with the Carers Trust Heart of England to provide carers’ support services. The contact details for Carers Trust Heart of England [https://www.carerstrusthofe.org.uk/] can be found in part three ‘useful information’.

Personal budgets for care and support

During the assessment, we will agree with you the level of support required to meet your assessed and eligible needs and translate this into an amount of money required to meet your needs - we call this a personal budget.

Once you know your personal budget and the agreed outcomes it will deliver, there are a number of ways you can manage your support. You can choose to:

• a. have more choice and control over your care and organise your own support, manage your budget, and make all payments yourself. We call this a Direct Payment.

or

• b. have us organise support for you within the levels of your budget and make all the payments. Any contribution you make towards the cost of your support package is paid to the Council.

We’ll talk to you about your options to help you make your decision. If you would like to explore the Direct Payment option but are concerned about how you would manage, we can explore this with you, as someone can manage the Direct Payments on your behalf.

As part of our Care Act assessment, we may identify some health needs. In this case we would arrange for a continuing health care assessment in order to determine your health needs and how best these will be met. This may lead to health services contributing to your personal budget whether you are having support in the community or in a nursing home.

Your care and support plan

We will write down the solutions that we have agreed with you in a care and support plan. A care and support plan is a detailed document setting out what services will be provided, how they will meet your needs, when they will be provided, and who will provide them. We will share the care and support plan with other professionals involved in your care. If you consent, we will also share it with family and friends if appropriate to do so.

Where this includes financial support from the Council, your plan will include a budget agreed for your needs. This is called a personal budget. In determining your budget, we will work with you to find the best value options that meet your assessed needs and promote your wellbeing.

There are different ways we offer financial support:

• If you require alternative accommodation, we will offer placements that meet your needs and are cost effective. However, if you choose a more expensive care facility we can support this if there is a third party (relative or friend for example) who can assist you to fund it. On these occasions we can enter into a ‘Top Up Arrangement’ with them.
• If you are receiving care at home we will offer you the opportunity to receive your budget directly into a separate bank account through a service called a Direct Payment from which you will purchase your care and support services. We will provide support to help you manage your funds when you need this.
• If you choose not to receive a Direct Payment, we will arrange appropriate services on your behalf and you would make your assessed contribution to the costs directly to the Council.

Reviewing your needs

We will work with you to monitor your care and support and to see if your care needs change over time.

Through reviewing your care and support plan, we will discuss with you whether the plan is working effectively, whether your needs have changed, whether more cost-effective options are available that can meet your needs (for instance through new technology), and whether your ability to make a financial contribution has changed.

This may result in changes to your care and support plan and personal budget.

Providers that are supporting you may contact us at an earlier point as your needs may change. We will involve them in your review along with others who are also involved. This might include family members and other professionals supporting you.  

Useful information

If you would like to know more about Adult Social Care in Coventry, please read our Annual Report [/ascannualreport].

Care Act 2014 Information

All councils use the same guidelines set by the Care Act 2014 [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-statutory-guidance/care-and-support-statutory-guidance] to see if they can support people. To get support:

• your needs must arise from, or are related to a physical or mental impairment or illness.
• without support you are unable to achieve two or more outcomes in the areas listed below.
• without support there is likely to be a significant impact on your wellbeing.

The areas outlined in the Care Act 2014, that all councils look at, include:

• eating, drinking and preparing meals.
• personal care.
• being appropriately clothed.
• being able to make use of the home safely.
• running and maintaining the home.
• developing and maintaining family and other personal relationships.
• accessing and engaging in work, training, education or volunteering.
• making use of necessary facilities or services in the local community including public transport and recreational facilities.
• carrying out any caring responsibilities for a child.

Jargon buster

TLAP Care and Support Jargon Buster [https://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Browse/Informationandadvice/CareandSupportJargonBuster/]

Useful contacts

Adult Social Care and Communities Directory [https://cid.coventry.gov.uk] This online directory has all the information and advice you need in one central place, so you can find the information you need easily.