A care and support plan shows how your eligible needs (as identified in your social care needs assessment) and outcomes are going to be met.
Your care and support plan will include how much your care and support will cost and how much you will need to pay towards the support. This is known as your assessed financial contribution.
You can write a care and support plan yourself. Or with help from family, friends (or someone who knows you well), a social care worker, or an independent support planner.
You can find out more about assessment of needs and eligibility in our Assessment and eligibility fact sheet
What is a care and support plan?
A care and support plan identifies:
- the things which are important to you
- your strengths and existing support
- your options for remaining independent, and
- the additional support you need to meet your needs
Planning your own support
You can write your care and support plan yourself. Here are some questions to help you start thinking about what needs to be in your plan. It can be put together in any way that makes sense to you.
Some people choose to write their support plan (or have someone write down what they say). Others may use pictures or photographs.
What is important to you?
- What are the things that must happen for you?
- Who are the important people in your life?
- Is there anything else that you want to include?
What do you want to achieve?
- What is working at the moment?
- What needs to stay the same?
- What isn’t working well?
- What part do you want to change?
How will you be supported?
- What help do you need?
- When do you need it?
- Who would you like to give you this help?
- Who will help you if your informal or arranged carer is ill or unable to support you?
How will you keep safe, what risks are there?
- What do you think the risks are?
- Who can help to manage them?
- What can be done to keep you safe?
How do you want your support to be managed?
- A direct payment?
- An arranged service, or part direct payment and part arranged service?
How will you stay in control?
- Do you need help with making decisions?
- If you do who helps you with this?
- How do you make sure your wishes are taken into account?
What will make your plan happen?
- Who will help with this?
- What will happen if things don’t go according to plan?
Help to create a care and support plan
If you are eligible for support from the council and want our help to arrange your support there are some important pieces of information that need to be included in your care and support plan.
We will:
- look at the needs identified during your social care assessment
- look at the support available from your family, friends, carers and local community
- plan the support which will meet your needs
- identify how much this will cost and how much you will need to pay towards it
- offer you advice and information to help you prevent or delay the need for care in the future
You will have choice and control around how you meet the needs which were identified in your care and support plan.
What happens to the plan?
The care and support plan belongs to you. A social care worker will need to see it to check that it has all the information it needs. The information we collect is recorded on paper, in databases and in electronic folders on a secure network. It is only accessible to staff who need to see it to do their jobs. This might include staff in external organisations such as the NHS and the Care Quality Commission.
Some of the information in our databases can be accessed remotely on mobile devices, by staff who visit you in your home. You can find out more about how we keep your information safe in our Your social care records and your rights information sheet.
Reviewing your support
We will usually review your support within 12 weeks of a care and support plan being implemented. After this we will review it once a year. You can invite anyone you think should be involved in the review, and let your social care worker know in advance.
Your social care worker can help to organise an advocate, if you have difficulty expressing your views.
You, your carers, the council and service providers can request a review at any time if:
- your needs have changed
- the support no longer meets your needs
- you want to make a major change to your care and support plan
- there are unmanageable risks in your care and support plan
If you are not happy with something in your plan
Your social care worker is usually the first person to speak to if you are worried about something, or if you disagree with something in your plan. If you are still not happy you can also contact the council complaints team.
Telephone: 0345 045 5202
Email: customercare@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Contact us
Telephone: 0345 045 5202
9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
