Getting the support you need

• Getting support
• If you need extra support
• Assessment
• Paying for care
• After you receive support
• Contacts

Getting support

• your health and safety is at risk, or who could be a risk to other people
• need help to carry out basic tasks like getting up and going to bed, getting washed and dressed, and making a meal
• can live independently with a little bit of extra help.

There is a lots of help and support for you in Kirklees. These include:

• help in your home, with your personal care
• activities and opportunities to do stuff
• help with getting around, such as transport to and from a day activity
• changes to your home such as fitting of handrails, hoists, and specialist baths
• short breaks where you may have some time away from your family to give the person you care for a rest

Extra help

If you think you need some extra help from the Learning Disability Service please get in touch with your local Gateway to care.

• Phone: 01484 223000
• Email: gatewaytocare@kirklees.gov.uk

You will be asked some questions about how you live and the type of help that you think you need. You may be offered some help straight away.

But if we need to know more about you someone will come and visit you in your own home to talk to you. This person is called an assessor.

Assessment

The assessor will ask you about

• the help you already get
• the things you can and can’t do for yourself
• where you are living
• where you want to live
• who you choose to live with
• what you choose to do in the daytime and evenings.

The assessment will also look at the help that your carers or family need.

• you can have a carer, friend, relative or advocate to help you put your views forward
• the assessment can also include your GP, district nurse, or other health professional who knows you well.

Paying for care

You may need to pay towards your care. The amount of money you pay will depend on what other money you have.

If the support does not meet your hopes you will be given the chance to receive the money as cash instead.

This money is called a direct payment. You can use this money to buy some of your support. Many people use the money to pay for a person (called a personal assistant) to help them in their life. You can pay a friend or relative to support you, as long as they don’t live in the same house as you. If you have a personal assistant, you will also have to consider the advantages and disadvantage of becoming an employer.

If you take a direct payment you must use the money for what you have been assessed as needing.

Taking a direct payment means that you will have more control over the support in your life, but it also means that you and the people who support you will have more responsibilities. You will need a separate bank account for this money, and have to keep records of what you have spent.

After you receive support

After you have started to receive support, your care manager will organise a review. This is a chance for everyone to meet together to talk about what is working well and what needs to change in the support that you are getting. Then, after you have had services for a year, you will be offered a reassessment. This is another chance to talk about how things are going.

Contacts:

You can visit the Gateway to Care which is also know as Gateway to Care, and get the help you need all in one place. They are based in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley and Cleckheaton.

• Phone: 01484 223000
• Email: gatewaytocare@kirklees.gov.uk
• Gateway to Care