Adult Social Care - Leaflet IL01

Adult Social Care - who we are and what we do

"You were most helpful and informative. I cannot fault the service and help received.."

Who we are

We are part of East Sussex County Council. As well as Adult Social Care Services, the county council is responsible for children's services, libraries, transport and roads.

Who we help

We play an important role in your local authority.

We support:

people over 60 who are leaving hospital;

people over 60 in residential and nursing homes;

people over 60 who are isolated or who need help to live at home;

carers who are looking after relatives or friends at home;

people with a physical disability or sight or hearing difficulties;

people with a learning disability;

people with mental-health problems;

people who have suffered domestic violence; and

people who want to give up drugs or alcohol.

As well as working with our colleagues in the county council, we also work closely with other organisations including:

the local primary care trusts;

the NHS trusts which run the county's hospital and mental health services;

the district and borough councils;

Sussex Police; and

local voluntary organisations such as Age Concern, East Sussex Disability Association, MENCAP and Care for the Carers.

We employ over 1600 staff including:

social workers;

care staff who work in our residential homes and in our daycare centres;

home carers;

minibus drivers and escorts; and

specialist staff who help people with physical disabilities and people with hearing or sight problems.

We are committed to being a learning organisation, encouraging our staff to develop their knowledge and skills. We run a wide training programme that is linked to our targets, and we achieved the national Investors in People award in 1999.

The help we can offer

We offer a wide range of services. Wherever possible, we try to help people live as independently as possible in their own homes and local communities. Our services include:

home care;

day care;

respite or short-break care (to give carers a break);

help for carers;

meals in the community (meals on wheels);

specialist advice and support for people with hearing, sight or speech problems;

equipment or adaptations to help people live independently at home;

support services for people with a physical disability;

car badges for people with a permanent disability (the 'Blue Badge');

support services for people with a learning disability;

support services for people with a mental-health problem;

short-term rehabilitation services for people over 60; and

residential care.

We aim to provide flexible and imaginative support that is designed to meet each person's individual needs. We must also work within our budget to make sure we get best value for money and that we provide high-quality and efficient services to the people who need them most. The county council sets our budget each year. It includes money from the Government and from the Council Tax and business rates. Our budget for 2005-2006 is £106 million.

We try to deal with all questions and requests for help quickly, and to make sure everybody has an equal opportunity to use our services, in line with their needs. When you contact us, we will explain clearly whether or not we can offer help. We will also tell you what other help may be available. We provide some services directly. For example, we run day-care centres, residential services for people over 60 and homes for people with learning disabilities. However, we also buy services from voluntary or private organisations, such as care for people over 60 in residential homes.

All our services must meet agreed standards of quality. This applies whether we provide them ourselves or we buy them from another organisation.

How we decide what to do

Many of our responsibilities as an Adult Social Care Department are set out by the Government in legislation. We have to consider the following legislation when we are deciding if people need our services.

Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004

Carers Act 1995

National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990

Disabled Persons Act 1986

Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970

National Assistance Act 1948

Because we are part of the county council, our Director of Adult Social Care reports to the elected East Sussex county councillors. The county councillors agree the policies that set out how we carry out our responsibilities in East Sussex and how we spend our money. You can look at reports of their meetings in public libraries or on the county council's website (www.eastsussex.gov.uk). As well as following national legislation and locally-agreed policies, we must also take account of various regulations and guidance issued by the Government, including the Department of Health. We are committed to making sure that you are fully involved in all the decisions we make about the services you use, and in planning and developing the services needed in East Sussex in the future. We also plan many of our services with local health authorities, other service providers and local voluntary organisations.

Who makes sure we are doing things properly?

The Government sets the standards for performance. We use these standards to measure our services and the improvements we have made. Each year, we send a report on our performance to the Department of Health, who publish our results with results from all other social care departments in the country.

The following organisations also inspect our work regularly.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection

The Audit Commission and District Audit

The Mental Health Act Commission

Local voluntary organisations also play an important role in monitoring our services. They are independent from us and monitor our services for the people who use them and the general public. They often act for people who are not satisfied with the response we have given to a particular issue.

We know that things do occasionally go wrong so we have a special procedure for dealing with complaints. This includes making an appeal to a complaints panel that is run by an independent person.

Customer care is very important to us. We will listen carefully to all comments, compliments and complaints, and learn from them. We aim to continuously improve all our activities and are always trying hard to find better ways of doing things. If we cannot sort out a complaint locally, the Local Government Ombudsman may become involved. An ombudsman is an independent official who investigates complaints made by the public.

How can I make a comment or complaint or give a compliment?

Complaints Unit
County Hall
PO Box 5
St Anne's Crescent
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 1SW.
Phone: 01273 481242

(The line is open from 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday, and from 8.30am to 4.30pm on Fridays.)

Fax: 01273 481331

E-mail: socialservicescomplaints@eastsussex.gov.uk

Minicom: 01273 481600

Textphone: Adult Social Care: 07797 877777

For information about how to complain or comment on our service, please see our separate leaflet 'IL03 Comments, compliments and complaints'.

Getting more copies of this leaflet

This leaflet is one of a series of leaflets that we produce about our services in East Sussex. You can also get leaflets for Children's Social Care. You can get more copies from Social Care Direct.

IL01 Adult Social Care - who we are and what we do

IL02 You and your information

IL03 Comments, compliments and complaints

IL04 Voluntary and community organisations in East Sussex

IL05 Community support for adults

IL06 Choosing a care home

IL07 Daycare services

IL08 Home-care services

IL09 Physical disability services

IL10 Services for people with sight or hearing problems

IL11 Learning disability services

IL12 Paying for services

IL13 Direct Payments - managing your own support

IL14 Involving users and carers

IL15 'Supporting People' Programme

IL16 Safeguarding adults - protecting vulnerable adults from abuse

Because we have added new titles to this series, the numbering for previous titles may be different in the new editions.

You can get all our leaflets in large print, in Braille, on audio tape, on CD or in other languages if you ask us. Please phone Social Care Direct on 0845 608 0191.

They are also available in mp3 and PDF formats, which you can download onto your computer from our website at www.eastsussex.gov.uk.

How to contact us

You can get more information about social care services by contacting Social Care Direct.

Phone: 0845 608 0191 (calls charged at a local rate)

Minicom: 0845 608 0191 (calls charged at a local rate)

Fax: 01323 466567

E-mail: socialcaredirect@eastsussex.gov.uk

Website: www.eastsussex.gov.uk

You can also contact us by text message from your mobile phone. Please text to 07797 878111.

Please note: Sussex Mad is only helping share this information, not actually involved with creating it, so please send questions to the Social Care Direct not Sussex Mad! If you have any more information on this leaflet and think it would be useful, please send it to me and I will add it.