If you or someone you care for is needing support to live independently, you may want to talk to us about the things that are important to you to find the best options to help you. We may:

• talk to you about having a social care assessment
• direct you to one of our partners who may be better placed to help you

If you'd like to have a look at what's available in your local community, our Live Well Barnsley directory provides information about services and voluntary groups across Barnsley that can help you in different ways.

Having a social care assessment

A social care assessment usually takes place at your home. You can have a family member, friend or advocate (someone who can help to make decisions about your care and support) with you, especially if they're helping to care for you. 

During the assessment we'll ask you about:

• what you want to achieve
• the support you currently have in place
• what additional support you feel you need to help you achieve your goals. This could be from your local community, family or friends, or other services.

Call (01226) 773300 to chat to us about whether you might benefit from a social care assessment.

How we work out what support you need

We use Department of Health guidance to work out what help you may need us to arrange. We'll look at the following criteria:

• if you have a disability, health need or impairment
• if your disability, health need or impairment means that you're unable to do some important things in your life without support
• if your disability, health need or impairment is having a significant impact on your physical, mental, emotional or social wellbeing

The decision is based on your needs and what you want to achieve, alongside staying safe and living well at home. We'll also look at the impact this has on your wellbeing.

After your assessment we'll write to you to tell you about the decision we've made and the reasons why.

If you qualify for support

If you are entitled to some care and support services at home, we'll talk to you about how much this will cost. There is a charge for adult social care, and most people will have to pay something towards the cost of the help they receive.

We will talk to you about your financial circumstances to look at how much you may need to contribute. Read more about paying for your care.

Managing your care

You'll be able to choose how your care and support needs are met. This could be through an organisation arranged by our brokerage team, or by a direct payment which gives you more flexibility on managing your care.

See our personal budgets webpage for more details.

If you don't qualify for support

We will make sure that we tell you why you haven't qualified and will give you information about other organisations and services in the community that may be able to help you. Some of these services are free, some you will need to pay for.

Find a service on Live Well Barnsley to see support available that you can arrange yourself.

Help for carers

We provide advice and support for people who are caring for a family member or friend. If you're caring for someone, because they cannot manage without some support, see our information about support for carers and having a carer's assessment.

Out-of-hours service

If you need help urgently and our office is closed, call our adult's out-of-hours service on (01226) 774466, or (01226) 787789 for our children's out-of-hours service. This service operates between 5pm and 8.45am Monday to Friday, and 24-hours on weekends and bank holidays. Please only use this service for emergency referrals for adult or children's social care that can't wait until our office is open.