How to get adult social care support

1 Manage your own care and support

The West Sussex Connect to Support website can help you find information and advice on care, support and ways to stay as independent as possible. You can use this for yourself, a relative or a friend. 

You can find out about:

• ways to live independently
• community activities
• how to get equipment to help you around your home
• support available for physical, sensory and health conditions, learning disabilities and autism
• paying for long-term care
• options for care

To find out if you could benefit from a conversation with us, use the Care Needs Checklist. You will be asked questions about your health conditions and any disabilities you may have, as well as how they affect your daily life.

If you are currently paying for residential care from savings and investments you can use this tool to calculate when your capital will deplete below £23,250 and get advice on what the next steps are.

2 Getting support to live independently

Care and support is available to help adults who may have an illness or disability to carry on living as independently as possible. This includes help with the following everyday activities:

• getting out of bed
• washing and dressing
• finding and being involved in work, education, training and volunteering
• seeing friends and being part of the community.

Most people don't need to contact us and can arrange care for themselves or with the help of friends and family.

If you are finding day-to-day tasks at home more difficult, you may want to think about the types of equipment available to help make life easier. 

For help finding the right local support and start planning ahead, you can use our Care Guide.

To find out if you could benefit from a conversation with us, use the Care Needs Checklist. You will be asked questions about your health conditions and any disabilities you may have, as well as how they affect your daily life.

3 Planning long-term care and support

If you are thinking about long-term care and support options you can visit our Carewise care funding scheme website for advice about financial planning.

For guidance on improving your health and wellbeing and ways to help you live as independently as possible, you can read the Care Guide. It also includes information about care services across the county.

4 Assessing your needs

If you think you need social care support, you have the right to ask us to assess your needs. An assessment helps us identify your social care needs, what’s important to you, and what you want to be able to achieve.

To find out if you could benefit from a conversation with us, use the Care Needs Checklist. You will be asked questions about your health conditions and any disabilities you may have, as well as how they affect your daily life.

We can only provide funded social care support to those who are eligible. Most people have to pay for some or all of their own care. Find out more about paying for social care support.

Self-assessment

Self-assessment is designed to help you think about what is working well for you and what needs to change.

You can complete a form to help you:

• plan and buy your own support
• think about your situation before contacting us for a formal assessment.

A friend, relative or carer can also complete a self-assessment form on your behalf. The easiest way to complete a self-assessment is to use the online form below.

Or you can ask us to send you a paper copy. Once you have completed it, you can either:

• keep it for your own personal use
• send it to us to provide background information about your personal circumstances. In this case, one of our staff will contact you about a formal assessment after we have received your form.

Assessment by the County Council

You have the right to ask us to assess your needs if you think you need social care support. The assessment is free of charge and we will aim to complete it within 28 working days of you contacting us. We will assess your eligibility for social care support.

If you have already submitted or returned a completed self-assessment form, we will use this as part of your assessment.

The simplest way to request an assessment is to complete the online referral form.

You can also contact us to arrange an assessment.

Supporting information

• Your life, your choice - Information for people who need social care support and for family and friend carers
• Sharing information about you so that you get better care

5 Contact us

Before you contact us you may want to find out if you could benefit from a conversation with us by using the Care needs checklist. You will be asked questions about your health conditions and any disabilities you may have, as well as how they affect your daily life. This form will help you navigate information and will also guide you, if you choose to continue, to contact us.

The simplest way to request an assessment is to complete the online referral form.

Before contacting us, it can be helpful to complete a self-assessment form.

If you are not requesting an assessment but you have an enquiry, please contact us online.

• Phone: 01243 642121 - 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.
• For emergency calls outside office hours, phone 01243 642121.
• Calls via Relay UK: 18001 01243 642121 (for deaf callers from a textphone or NGT Lite app downloaded to a computer, tablet or smartphone).
• If you need help in a mental health crisis call NHS 111 and select option 2 or visit Getting help in a mental health crisis.
• If you or the person who you are calling about is in immediate danger please call 999.

You may also prefer someone else, such as a relative, friend or your GP to contact us for you.

If you have special communication needs

Contact one of the teams below to discuss your situation.

County Deaf Services Team

• Email: county.deaf.services@westsussex.gov.uk
• Phone: Use central phone (01243 642121) and Relay UK numbers above
• SMS: 07736 093462 (text only)
• Address: ACP Duty - Deaf, Second Floor, The Grange, County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1RG

Rehabilitation Officers for the Visually Impaired (ROVI) Team

• Email: rovi.visualimpairment@westsussex.gov.uk
• Phone: 01243 642121

6 Emergencies

We provide emergency cover outside normal office hours of 9.00am-5.00pm, Monday-Friday, covering evenings and overnight, weekends and bank holidays.

• Phone: 01243 642121 for urgent referrals for adults, including safeguarding or to contact an Approved Mental Health Professional, who will consider an urgent Mental Health Act Assessment - for all age groups.
• If you need help in a mental health crisis call NHS 111 and select option 2 or visit Getting help in a mental health crisis.
• If you or the person who you are calling about is in immediate danger please call 999.

7 Accessible Information Standard

The Accessible Information Standard ensures that if you have a disability you can easily get information you understand and receive any communication support you need.

It aims to support you so you can be fully involved in decisions about your care.

All organisations that provide NHS or social care services must follow the standard and:

• ask people if they have any information or communication needs
• record and highlight those needs on a person’s record 
• set out how to meet those needs
• share the information about the person’s needs with other social care or NHS providers as part of any referral or handover process
• meet the needs by ensuring all communications are understood and that any communication support required is provided.