Safeguarding is about protecting children, young people and adults at risk from abuse or neglect. Abuse is not normal and never ok. Being abused means a person is being deliberately hurt by someone else. If you are concerned about a child, young person or adult report it to Dudley Safeguarding.
:: report it
So that everyone is treated is treated fairly and consistently we follow government guidelines laid down in The Care Act 2014, to establish who is eligible for social care and support. The Act introduced a national eligibility threshold in April 2015 which is made up of three criteria, all of which must be met for a person’s needs to be eligible for care and support.
:: find out more about eligibility criteria
The social care assessment is where we will sit down with you to discuss how you want to live your life and what care and support could help improve your situation. The assessment puts you at the very centre of the process. It is a two part assessment process, see the link below for more information.
:: find out more about the social care assessment
Once you have had a social care assessment and we have agreed that you meet the eligibility criteria for care and support services, we will work with you to produce an assessment and support plan. This will detail how you will reach your chosen goals and how your needs will be met, with the help of care and support services.
:: find out more about support planning
If you have been receiving intermediate or reablement services, these will be reviewed. In other cases we will automatically review your care and support at least once a year. However, if your needs change in the meantime you can request a review and, if appropriate, your personal budget will be adjusted to meet the change in need.
:: find out more about reviewing your support
If you have been assessed by adult social care as eligible for social care support and are receiving a personal budget, you can choose to take this as direct payments. This means that the council will give you the money to purchase your own care and support (this is not a 'benefit' and can only be used to buy the care and support services that you need).
:: find out more about direct payments
A personal budget is an allocation of money that you use to pay for the care and support needs stated in your assessment and support plan. This is paid to you by us, depending upon your financial circumstances. To establish if you qualify for funding and a personal budget a financial assessment of your circumstances will need to take place.
:: find out more about personal budgets
The Children with Disabilities Service is responsible for supporting children and young people with disabilities up until the age of 18. After that the responsibility passes to adult social care services if the young person meets the eligibility criteria for social care services.
:: find out more about moving from children's to adult's services
Dudley MBC provides access to several forms of ‘Advocacy’ from Self Advocacy which supports individuals to speak up for themselves through to NHS Complaints Advocacy which supports people to raise issues and make complaints about health related services.
