Contacting Adult Social Care Services from February 14th

At the Council, we’ve had to make many changes in the way we work and how we are structured in order to support the new system of self-directed support and personal budgets. One of the next steps is to have one point of first contact for our customers – which will be provided by trained advisers in Wokingham Direct.

For individual staff members, numbers will remain the same, while team and service numbers will be diverted to our new number. There is no need to be concerned should someone answer the phone with a different title - they will still be able to deal with your query.

New social care telephone number: 0118 974 6772

In the short term calls can still be made to our old number (0118 974 6800) and these calls will be diverted.

News about central Government’s vision for Adult Social Care

Government plans for the future of adult social care have now been published. The paper, "A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens", outlines the vision for the future and sets a challenge to all local Councils to provide a personal budget, preferably as a direct payment, for everyone who is eligible by April 2013.

The vision also calls for an increase in preventative activity in local communities to keep people independent for longer and to contribute to building the Big Society.

The key principles described in the vision are:

• Prevention
• Personalisation
• People
• Protection
• Plurality
• Productivity
• Partnership

Are you new to personal budgets?

• Have you just started using self directed support?
• Want to find out what it's like to have a personal budget?
• Want to speak to someone who knows what it's like?

Why not ask to speak to a Choice Champion?

A group of local people who have personal budgets have been fully trained to become Choice Champions (training funded by Wokingham Borough Council).

On your request, your care manager or broker can arrange for you to speak to a Choice Champion; either over the phone or face-to-face. They can help you understand what is involved when you start using self-directed support, and provide advice and reassurance based on their experiences.

If you would like to speak to a Choice Champion, please talk directly to your care manager or broker.