How do I get started?
Step 1: Assessment
Step 2: Eligibility
Step 3: Financial assessment
Step 4: Make your support plan
Step 5: Organise your support
What happens next?
Self directed support is new in Oxfordshire, but it does not have to be daunting. You will be closely involved in planning and arranging your own care, and you will also have greater freedom in choosing who helps you to plan and organise your care.
The below steps explain what happens when, and what help is available to assist you with each of the steps.
Step 1: Assessment
If you have not been in touch with social services before, please contact the Social and Health Care Team on 0845 050 7666 to start the process. The team can help you find out what services are available and if you are eligible for assistance from Oxfordshire County Council.
Once you have made contact with social services, you will be assigned a social worker or a care manager who will sit down with you to discuss your situation. They will carry out a 'needs assessment' with you to identify what your care needs are.
Your social worker/care manager will arrange to meet you at a time and place which suits you. You can ask someone to be with you at your assessment. This could be a relative or a friend who could help you tell us your views.
Step 2: Eligibility
We are not able to help everyone so we use guidelines to decide who is eligible for help. If you would like to know more about these guidelines, your
If your assessment shows you are eligible, we will then be able to give you an indication of how much money could be made available to pay for the support you need. This money is called a 'personal budget'.
The personal budget is calculated using a formula, which takes into account your identified needs and personal circumstances, such as where you live and the support you already receive. If you would like to know more about how this works, please read our summary, How Personal Budgets are calculated in Oxfordshire (.pdf, 36Kb).
Step 3: Financial assessment
You may be asked to make a contribution towards the cost of your support. To work out how much this contribution will be, we will need to carry out an assessment of your finances. We will make sure you are told of any assessed contribution before you incur these costs, so there are no unpleasant surprises.
Step 4: Make your support plan
Once your assessment has taken place and your needs have been clearly identified and discussed with you, you will need to make a support plan. This is a document that describes the support you think you need to meet your social care and support needs. We can give you a template support plan to help you get started, or you can make your own plan. You can also look at a few examples of plans other people have made if you would like to get some ideas.
We have also made a planning guide to help you make your support plan. Your social worker/care manager will give you a copy, and you can also download an electronic version below:
- Guide for Individuals and their Carers (easy read) (.pdf, 2.8Mb)
Please note that the file is large and may take longer to download as a result.
To find out about what help is available for you when you are making your support plan, you may also find the information about support planning on the page 'Who can help me?' helpful.
Your support plan should put you at the centre and talk about how you would like to be supported and what is important to you. The support plan will have to answer seven key questions:
Before your support plan can be approved, your social worker/care manager will also check that it is:
The support you propose in your support plan must meet your needs. You can make your support plan yourself, someone else can help you with it or someone can do it for you. You may be able to get help from:
- Your family or friends
- Someone who specialises in support planning (a ‘support broker’)
- A service provider
- A social worker/care manager
Whichever way you like to put your plan together, it is important that you are involved as much as possible in making your support plan.
Everyone’s plan will be different. You can be creative and can use sources of support that work for you provided that this meets the needs identified in your assessment.
When your support plan is finished, you will need to get this agreed by your social worker/care manager before any money can be released.
Step 5: Organise your support
Once your support plan and the money is confirmed, your plan can be put into action. Your plan has details of who will do what and serves as your starting point for organising your support.
If you need to use services which are new to you, you are likely to want to look around to see what options you can choose from and which you like best. You will also want to ensure you are paying a fair price for the service you want to buy.
A support broker can help you make sense of the offers and help you make the best choice for your particular situation. See also the page entitled 'Who can help?' in the menu on the left for more information about support brokers.
If you have been allocated a support broker and would like to get to know them before their first visit or call, you can view profiles of Approved Support Brokers here.
What happens next?
Your support plan will be reviewed after 12 weeks and then at least annually to make sure it continues to meet your needs. If you want to change your support substantially, you will need to change your support plan, and your social worker/care manager will need to agree this again.
If you think that your needs have increased so that more money may be needed, you will need to ask your social worker/care manager to carry out another assessment of need.
It is possible that the review shows that you are no longer eligible for support, or that your needs have reduced and that you are entitled to less money.
