Information for people with social care needs

If you do not have eligible needs or you have savings or investments above the national limit

We will provide you with information and advice to help you plan the support you need, for example, information about other care providers, prevention and wellbeing services, equipment, community activities and advice on how to pay for your care.

For information about all of these services and more, visit the West Sussex Connect to Support website or contact our Adults’ CarePoint. Please see our contact details on the 'Contact us' page.

If our assessment shows you have eligible social care needs, but you have savings or investments over the national limit of £23,250 (not including the value of your main or only home), we can help you arrange and buy the services you want. We call this a brokerage service and the people who provide the service are known as care and support brokers. The brokerage service only covers services in the community, which we have a legal duty to provide in order to meet your eligible social care needs. This includes short-term residential care, but not long-term residential care.

There is a charge for this service, but it is only to cover our costs of making and reviewing the care arrangements.

We charge an initial fee of £195. If you want us to change your support later on, we will charge another fee of £195.

If you want us to buy services for you and then reclaim the cost from you, we will charge you an ongoing fee of £6 a week.

If you have savings or investments over £23,250 but you are not able to make decisions about arranging your own support and you have no one to help you, we will do this for you free of charge. Once you have a financial representative, usually appointed by the Court of Protection, you will have to pay an ongoing fee of £6 a week if we continue to arrange and pay for services on your behalf. If you want us to change your support later on, we would charge you a fee of £195.

Someone to help you have your say – an advocate

You may need some help to say what you want. An advocate can help you do this. They can also help protect your rights, represent your interests, find things out for you and help you get the support you need.

There are a number of advocacy services in West Sussex. For more information about this support, please ask a social care worker, visit the West Sussex Connect to Support website or contact our Adults’ CarePoint. Please see our contact details on the 'Contact us' page.

Some people find it very difficult to plan their social care support and do not have someone else to represent them or support them to be involved in their assessment, planning their support or reviewing their care. We must provide these people with an independent advocate to speak on their behalf. This will help them to be fully involved in their social care assessment and planning and reviewing their care. It will also help them if we are supporting them because they are at risk of abuse or neglect. We provide this service free of charge.

What happens if I move out of West Sussex?

You may decide to move out of West Sussex to live in a different local authority area. If our assessment has shown that you have social care needs which are eligible for council-funded care and support, we will work with you to make sure that moving home causes as little disruption to your care as possible. Before you move, we will work with your new local authority to make sure that there is no interruption to the care and support you receive after the move.