Hospital care and leaving hospital

Who to tell when you go into hospital

If you're receiving social care services from us, you need to let us know if you're going into hospital as we'll need to cancel these services until you're ready to go home. 

If you've arranged your care services, you'll also need to tell your personal assistant or care agency about your hospital stay, whether you pay for care yourself or through a direct payment.

If you're going to be in hospital for a long time, you'll need to find out how this will affect your benefits and Council Tax. Contact our benefits and Council Tax service online.

Preparing to go home

A social worker may come to see you before you leave hospital to check if you need any support to return home.

You may qualify for help from our reablement service, which can provide you with short-term help.

After this time, a social worker will visit you to see if you need further help and we may complete a social care assessment to see if you qualify. If you do, you may need to pay something towards the cost of your social care services. If you prefer you can choose to arrange and pay for services yourself. Find a service on Live Well Barnsley.

You need to tell us when you come out of hospital so that we can rearrange the services that we provide.

Leaving hospital into a care home - Discharge to Assess (D2A)

Discharge to Assess (D2A) is a short-term care home placement that helps you leave hospital as soon as it is safe to do so.

A D2A placement allows us to assess your needs in a calmer, more comfortable environment outside of hospital. This can help us better understand the support you may need and work with you to plan for the future.

How you'll know if you're eligible for a D2A

While you are in hospital, one of our Duty Workers will visit you on the ward. They'll talk with you about your ongoing needs, your home situation, and any support you may currently have. They'll also look at whether it's safe for you to return home at this time or any other options.

If it's agreed that a D2A bed is the right option for you, the NHS will arrange a short-term care home placement. This placement is temporary and is used so further assessments can take place. This is a short-term NHS-arranged placement, there is no choice of care home, and we're not involved in arranging this placement.

Paying for your care

You can find out whether you need to pay for the care home and how much it costs on our page about paying for care homes.