Organising Care and Support
Age UK Southampton offers free and comprehensive advice on a wide range of subjects.
We can help you identify the problem, explain the choices available and help you decide what you want to do. We may be able to provide individual support if you need further help to resolve the problem.
Our services
- Advice around accessing, arranging and paying for care and support, including Local Authority care needs assessments
- Advice on the choices you have around local authority assessments and social care including care packages and care home placements
- Advice on funding care including local authority financial assessments, local authority charging rules eligiblity criteria, direct payments and information for self-funders
- Advice to help keep you independent at home, such as accessing aids/equipment and maintenance
- Information on hospital discharge process including temporary support like NHS reablement service
- Information on NHS Health funding including NHS Continuing Healthcare and accessing this
- Information on local mental health services, dementia services and other health-related services
- Support with understanding and challenging decisions about social services and health services.
- Support with planning for later life including considering mental capacity and decision making, Power of Attorney, wills and dealing with an estate
How we deliver the service
- Telephone advice, including appointments
- Email advice
- Face to face appointments
- Information guides and factsheets
-
Accessing care
There is help available such as a free care needs assessment from the local authority to get some aids and equipment fitted free of charge, or support arranging a care package.
-
Paying for care
The current capital threshold for Local Authority funding is £23,250 which applies to the individual needing care. Where a person is assessed as needing care, the funding is means-tested and a separate financial assessment works out how much the person can afford to contribute towards the cost.
Age UK Factsheet: FS29 Finding, choosing and funding a care home
-
Support for carers
If a caring role is having an impact on a person’s wellbeing and/or affecting their physical or mental health then they can request a free Carer’s Assessment, which is a responsibility of the local authority adult social care team. This is specifically for informal carers and can lead to help with the caring role, respite care, aids/equipment and support.
-
Hospital discharge
No-one likes the idea of going into hospital but many of us will need to at some point, particularly as we get older. Some people are eligible for a short term NHS funded package of care and towards the end of the agreed period, staff reassess your needs to see if you need long-term support.
Common questions
Your most common enquiries answered!
We provide free, confidential and impartial advice on a wide range of topics and have created some frequently asked questions to cover the things we get asked about most often - from benefits to care and lots in between.
Our Quality Standards
Our Information & Advice service has achieved the national Advice Quality Standard and been assessed as meeting the benchmarks of the Age UK Information & Advice Quality Programme. This ensures we comply with recognised Advice Sector standards of practice and means our information and advice is accurate and high quality.
