Your journey through adult social care

Your journey begins with thinking about how you can help yourself. There are lots of resources in the community you can use such as;

• family and friends
• voluntary organisations
• libraries
• community centres
• the internet.

Before you make contact with us, there are many types of advice and support available in your community that may suit your needs:

• help to stay independent
• living well for longer 
• search our Community Services Directory [external link] for local services and organisations which may be able to help you.

If you feel that you are looking for more support for your health and wellbeing you can contact the council via our Adult Contact Team.

If you are feeling unsafe or concerned about your wellbeing or another person then please use this link to Darlington Safeguarding to let us know or dial 999.

The Adult Contact Teams provides information, advice and guidance. An Adult Contact Team (ACT) worker will help you get the right information for your specific needs. They can signpost you to relevant external services or organisations if required.

Get in contact with adult social care through our Adult Contact Team

If it is felt that you are likely to have ongoing care and support needs that might need more specialist input, then the adult contact Team will make an internal referral. The referrals will go to the most appropriate social work team;

• Safeguarding/Dols team
• Responsive, Integrated, Assessment, Care Team (RIACT)
• Reablement team
• Learning Disabilities team
• Mental Health team.
• Occupational Therapy Team including sensory support
• Adult Contact Team (short term case work)
• Ongoing Intervention and Assessment Team (OIAT)

Once you have been referred to the right service, a practitioner will be allocated to do an initial assessment of your support needs and find out more about you and what support will help you.

During an assessment, we collect information and ask questions so we can better understand what support is needed.

We ensure that you feel listened to, and work with you to ensure your eligible care and support needs are met.

We are guided by the principles of the Care Act and the aims of our strength-based practice [PDF document]

At this point, things like financial assessments, and if a direct payment has been identified as the method to meet someone’s eligible care and support needs will be discussed.

Financial assessment

In Darlington, social care and support services are usually paid for either:

• privately by you or your family
• by the local authority (Darlington Borough Council) when you're eligible for support
• or sometimes by joint arrangements with Health e.g funded nursing care under continuing health care or section 117 

If you are eligible to receive adult social care support on a long-term basis, we will talk to you some more. You will complete a financial assessment to work out how much, if anything, you will have to contribute towards the cost of care yourself.

This will determine whether, and how much, you would be asked to pay towards the costs of your care.

If you are assessed as needing to pay the full costs of your care, you can make arrangements for yourself, or we will help you. (Please note this will be chargeable)

Find out more about paying for care.

We will ensure, in agreement with you, that suitable care and support is provided. (Or allocation of funds to enable you to purchase your own care and support, such as personal budgets or direct payments)

An initial review is carried out after 6 weeks from the start of care and support plan. Your allocated practitioner will check back with you to see how things are going and whether the support provided is meeting your needs.

Any changes can be made at this time.

The reviews ensure that the level of care is appropriate and that you are being supported effectively.

The customer journey through Adult Social Care can end with;

• an annual review after 12 months
• further information and advice
• signposting to other services and resources
• continuation of support with a subsequent 12-month review
• or the closing of the case.

If you no longer require ongoing can support, you will be provided advice about how to contact us again should this change.

If you just require additional advice and information about accessing services not provided by the local authority this will be provided

Should you continue to require ongoing care and support from the council, we will ensure that you receive an annual review of your support and financial arrangements.

Through each step we will check with you that you understand and agree with the process.

We will seek feedback on the quality of the service delivered by our teams.