The care act places a responsibility on Salford Care Organisation to arrange services that help improve people’s independence and wellbeing. There are approximately 4,000 individuals supported in Salford in a variety of different ways. This includes people supported in their own homes, in the community or in a residential setting such as a care home.
The services arranged to meet people’s needs are delivered by Social Care Providers and have to be registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). CQC inspect the Providers and award a single quality rating which are published on the CQC website.
The Social Care Providers that deliver services in Salford have to go through a selection process to ensure they have the right skills and expertise. The Procurement and Market Management Team oversee this process and then continue to monitor the quality of performance of services to ensure that people’s needs are outcomes are met.
Adult Social Care provide assessments under the Care Act 2014 for people who may have needs for care and support and will support people to improve their wellbeing and achieve their outcomes in day to day life. This may include providing support services which help people with daily living. Adult social Care also has safeguarding duties to make enquiries and support adults who have needs for care and support, are experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect and are unable to protect themselves
Adult social care provides support to learning disabled adults, physically disabled adults, older adults, adults with mental health needs, adults who experience difficulties with substance misuses and adults who are on the autistic spectrum (including adult with Asperger’s Syndrome) and individuals who provide unpaid carer support.
The support we provide follows an assessment of your needs to help us understand if you are eligible for adult social care support. The types of support we offer is wider ranging and can include help with personal care (such as eating, washing, or getting dressed) or for domestic routines (such as cleaning or going to the shops). These can be arranged on your behalf by an adult social care worker, or you can be provided with what is known as a direct payment to arrange your own personal support.
The aim of our support is to help you live an independent life in your own home and prevent where possible the need for support in a care home setting.
Adult Social Care services have to be paid for and the amount you will need to pay will be determined by an assessment of your financial circumstances and assets.
Adult Social Care can also provide support and advice if you are concerned about your own safety, or you are worried that another adult is experiencing or at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect through what is known as adult safeguarding.
The Independent Living Services are made up of 5 services which include:
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Community Occupational Therapy
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Wheelchair services
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Equipment services
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Accessible accommodation
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Care on call
The key aims of these services are to support Salford residents, children and adults, remain in their own homes, whilst being as independent as possible for as long as able.
Unpaid carers are entitled to a separate statutory assessment that is independent from the person they care for and consider the carer’s wellbeing and support needs. This can enable eligible need to be identified that can lead to respite care, or an application for a Carer’s Personal Budget to support the carer’s wellbeing.
Direct Payments
Direct Payments are monetary payments made to individuals to meet some or all of their eligible assessed care and support needs. Direct Payments provide independence, choice and control by enabling the person to choose how they meet their identified outcomes and may include purchasing from an agency, hiring a personal assistant (PA) or finding other solutions to meet their identified outcomes and support needs through accessing community groups or a one off purchase for example. You can only spend your direct payment on support that you have been assessed as needing.
Community Occupational Therapy Service
Community Occupational Therapy has an open referral system accepting referrals from Salford residents as well as other residents outside of Salford, as long as they are registered with a Salford GP. Any individual, of any age, living at home with a long term medical condition is entitled to an assessment. Assessments can be requested by contacting the Adult Social Care Contact Team by either telephone 0161 206 0604 or email salford.socialservices@nca.nhs.uk
Referral to the Occupational Therapy Service may lead to the provision of advice, signposting to other services and provision of equipment or minor, property adaptation work at this point. Those cases that cannot be resolved at the point of contact are prioritised and / or allocated straight to a therapist, who will make an appointment to visit you at home. A full assessment of your or the referred person's ability to carry out activities of daily living and of their general duties around the home will be carried out. The therapist may offer advice on the techniques used to carry out activities or they may recommend pieces of equipment to enable independence. If you are unable to use equipment they may recommend adaptations to the property, to enable you to remain independent at home for longer.
In situations where a care package is being considered, an occupational therapy assessment can be carried out to determine what you are able to do for yourself and to ascertain the level of support required. Similarly, when care is reviewed an Occupational Therapy assessment can be invaluable in determining if equipment may allow you to be independent before further care is considered.
Wheelchair Clinics
Should you require provision of a wheelchair you can be seen within a wheelchair clinic where a specialist assessment will be provided?
If Salford Wheelchair Service provides a wheelchair, they will take responsibility for the servicing and repair of that chair. We run a drop-in clinic (Wobble and Squeak) Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons between 1pm and 3pm. To access this service you can ring Equipment Services on 0161 607 1424 to report the fault and they will book you into the next available slot, if this is convenient, and you will then be asked to bring your chair into Burrows House for a maintenance assessment and fixing where appropriate.
Equipment Services
Routine daily living equipment that can be loaned to you by the Equipment Service includes wheelchairs, bathing, toileting, and showering equipment; beds; and moving and handling equipment. This equipment is accessed mostly via an assessment of need by an Occupational therapist however other professionals involved in your care (Nurses or Physiotherapists for example) may also be able to access some of this too. In some circumstances and for low level needs only a social worker may also be able to assess your needs and provide you with some basic daily living equipment.
If you are having problems with any equipment issued to you can contact the Equipment Service direct by calling 0161 607 1424 or by emailing equipment.services@srft.nhs.uk.
If your issue falls outside of the regular Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 4.30pm working hours then you can call the out of hours service for advice and / or assistance on 0151 531 1333 for general enquiries or specifically for lift breakdowns you can call 0161 794 8888.
Adult social care portal
https://adultsportal.salford.gov.uk
Out of hours:
0161 794 8888 for adult social care
0161 206 8921 for district nursing
Adaptations to the property – Accessible Accommodation Services (AAS)
A statutory responsibility of the Occupational Therapy service is to assess and make recommendations for adaptations to the home environment through the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). Under the housing grants construction and regeneration act 1996 people can apply for a grant to make the house suitable for a disabled person. The Accessible Accommodation Services manages all aspects of property adaptation including the applications stage for DFG. The DFG is a means tested grant and covers the following areas of the property.
Access to and from the home: This will include things such as external rails, ramps, step lifts, reconfiguring steps.
Access within the home: Internal rails, widening doors, door intercom systems, stair lifts, vertical lifts, ceiling track hoists, extending the property to provide ground floor facilities.
Access to use of the bathroom: specialist toilet, sink, level access shower facility, non-slip flooring, rails
Access to kitchen: modifying surface heights, adjustable height hob, alternative storage facilities
Extension: Extend property to provide downstairs facilities where upstairs cannot be safely accessed.
Adaptations are provided where the needs of the person cannot be met by equipment alone.
In situations where it is not reasonable or practicable to adapt a property, this may be for structural reasons or it may not be cost effective, the therapist will make recommendations for re housing stating the type of property which would best meet the family’s long term needs.
A social work practitioner will contact you to discuss with you what you want to achieve, what your strengths are and what you are struggling with. They will offer advice on what community and universal services may be able to help you, what small aids you can purchase that may help, identify if any other referrals would be useful such as for an occupational therapy assessment and support you to identify ways in which you can achieve your outcomes. Where required, they will work with you to draw up a support plan that identifies how you will meet your needs and outcomes, which may be in the form of a direct payment or commissioned care and support services. Paid for services provided under adult social care are means tested and subject to a financial assessment to determine how much you will need to contribute to the cost of your care.
If you are at adult at risk, a social care practitioner will work with you, and other professionals where required, to make enquiries about what is happening and seek to remove or reduce the risk of harm, in a way that supports what you want to happen.
When contacting the Learning Disability service, we will undertake an assessment to see what your needs are and which are eligible or require support with, we will want to work with yourself, family and any service provider to enhance your skills, independence and quality of life. The service will also work with children’s services to support people with transition from children to adult services.
The service will also support you with identified health needs and works closely with primary and acute care services to support appropriate access to these services.
Safeguarding adults at risk
If an adult with care and support needs is identified as having experienced or being at risk of abuse or neglect then we will conduct an enquiry to investigate this further. This will be co-ordinated by Adult Social Care and all partner agencies will contribute by attending meetings and providing information related to their service. At the outset of the enquiry, there will be a conversation with the adult at risk or their representative to discuss what they feel is important and what outcomes they would like to achieve from the Safeguarding Adults enquiry. The person will be kept updated so that their views and wishes inform the enquiry and they will be invited to attend a case conference where all the findings of the enquiry are considered. Following the enquiry we will check with the person if they feel their identified outcomes were met, and how safe they feel now. They will also be given the opportunity to meet with someone from our engagement team to tell us about their experience of the safeguarding enquiry.
To Access any of the Independent Living Services, contact should be made, in the first instance by telephoning the Adult Social Care Contact Team on 0161 206 0604, or emailing via salford.socialservices@nca.nhs.uk The call handler, based on the information you give to them, will redirect your enquiry to the most appropriate Independent Living Service where the assessment process (as described above) will begin.
Between 8.30am and 4.30pm from Monday to Friday:
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Telephone: 0161 206 0604
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Text: 07970 134894
At other times, if you need immediate help you can contact the emergency duty service on 0161 794 8888 or minicom 0161 793 3303
Safeguarding adult’s leaflet https://safeguardingadults.salford.gov.uk/for-the-public/
Carer leaflet https://www.salford.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/caring-for-someone/
Direct Payments leaflet https://www.salford.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/contact-adult-social-care/what-is-an-assessment/long-term-support/personal-budgets/direct-payments/