Older Peoples Services

The principal aim of community care is to help people who need care and support to live an independent life at home, or in homely surroundings within the community.

Agencies providing community care services in Barnsley work together to ensure that people have good quality care and support at home.

How to get Community Care services

If you are finding it difficult to manage you can contact any of the main community care agencies. This may be your G.P, Social Services, or district nurse.

Community Care aims to help frail older people and people with disabilities to:

• continue living in their own homes
• find alternative accommodation if their existing home is not suitable
• get the right amount of care and support for themselves and their carers
• have a greater say in how they live their lives.

When you ask for help, you will be offered an assessment so that you can talk about your needs and get advice on the type of care and support available.

If there is someone caring for you, they will also be involved in the assessment and asked what support they need.

Community Care services include a meals service, help with personal and domestic tasks, night sitting services, and day care.

There is a charge for these services. You will be given information about charging for services and how much you will have to pay.

Download the Charging Policy (.pdf)

Community care services also include health care services such as chiropody, physiotherapy or district nursing, for which you will not be charged.

Once the assessment is complete and you are happy with the care and support that can be arranged, you will be asked to sign and be given a copy of your care plan.

This sets out details of the care that will be provided. Social Services will review the care plan regularly to make sure the care you are receiving meets your needs.

Principles and Aims of Service

The community care service providers in Barnsley share a number of values for the way in which they provide their services. These are:

• you should always be treated with courtesy and honesty.
• you, and your family/carers should always be given up-to-date and relevant information to enable you to make the right choices and be fully involved in decisions made about the services you receive.
• personal information will be treated in the strictest confidence, and will not be passed on to anyone else without your consent (except in rare cases where the law requires it or where it is essential in the public interest). You have the right to see and copy any information we keep about you.
• you will be treated fairly on the basis of need. We will not discriminate against you because of your age, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
• where service provision is subject to eligibility criteria, these will be applied without discrimination.
• services you receive should help to remain as independent as possible, reflecting your chosen lifestyle, whenever this is possible.
• if you need more than one service, the people arranging the different services will work together.
• all complaints are taken seriously, and are considered a helpful way of improving our services. You will be given a copy of the complaints procedure. If you need help to make a complaint this can be arranged.
• we welcome your views and would like you to be involved in planning future services.
• you will be given advance details of any charges you may be asked to pay.