Putting people first in Plymouth

Plymouth City Council is committed to 'Putting People First' the Government’s vision for the future direction of adult social care.

The aim of Putting People First is to put users of adult social care at the heart of decisions about their care, and promote independence, choice, and control.

The system for providing social care for adults will be transformed so that the emphasis is on the individual's dignity, right to self-determination, choice, control and power over the support services they receive. This is called personalisation.

Personalisation means moving away from traditional social care where people are fitted into a limited set of available statutory services. It introduces the requirement for greater personal responsibility and for individuals to use their own resources, as well as those available through statutory and other services, to meet their needs in the best way possible.

The main changes are likely to be:

• Giving people more choice and control over how they receive support
• Telling people how much money can be spent on their care - their personal budget
• Letting people directly control and spend their personal budget through an individual budget or direct payment
• Give help earlier to reduce the need for crisis services
• Work together with the health service so we only have to assess people's care needs once and give people the chance to assess their own care needs - self-assessment
• Social workers spending more time helping people to find the care they want and less on paper work

What does Putting People First cover?

The Putting People First programme covers a wide range of projects aimed at increasing the choice and control of adults in need of social care. These include:

• Improved prevention and early intervention - people want the right help at the right time before they reach a crisis
• Services to promote independence and help people stay at home - people expect services to be available to them quickly, easily and fit into their lives
• Recognising the importance of the carer's role - we need to increase the range of support to carers
• Easy access to information, advocacy and advice - people want this so they can make informed choices, regardless of circumstances
• Self Directed Support - people want a transparent and equitable way of getting the support they need and one that gives them choice and control
• Services - people want a range of good quality services to choose from with highly skilled and empowered staff

To access more information and understand more about services provided by adult social care services please use the left hand links.

Documents

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	Putting People First - a shared vision and commitment to transforming adult social care. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 396KB
	Transforming social care - Local Authority circular January 2008. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 648KB

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