People at the heart of care

Find out more about our plans to transform Adult Social Care, by putting people at the heart of care.

In Suffolk we are undertaking a programme of widespread change in how we deliver Adult Social Care services, to help us better support people with increasingly complex needs to maintain their independence and live good lives, with the right support, in their community, and better manage the ever-increasing levels of demand placed upon the social care system.

We have developed a new approach to this transformation, which has been created around four core outcomes, called People at the heart of Care.

People at the Heart of Care is based on the simple idea that people should be at the centre of their own care and support choices and decisions. It will mean changes to every part of a person’s journey with social care, including changes to the early advice and guidance we provide, the way assessments are processed and new self-commissioning via direct payments and individual service funds.

independent older couple outside their home with their dog

This will include looking at the advice and guidance available from the very start of a person’s social care journey, encouraging them to plan for the future by identifying their strengths and finding ways to keep themselves healthier and independent for longer. It will help people to assess their own needs themselves, capturing people's experiences in their own words, allowing quicker, fuller, and more holistic assessment of a person's needs before determining if or when they may need support.

We understand the benefits of keeping people independent for longer. We will get the right support to people to help them keep their independence, building on their own strengths. Helping people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible is a key aim, as is making the best use of new and developing digital care technologies to help people stay in touch with families, caregivers, and friends.

Giving people more choice and control over the care and support they receive is a key part of our transformation. This is because people want to feel in control of the care they receive, and because we believe that social care should be done with people, not to people. We will utilise the power of individual budgets, where we give people the tools to commission their own care from providers, to achieve this, and will look to increase the care options available to people by creating a new online marketplace of care and support providers.

People at the heart of care

Tier 1 – Help to help yourself: boosting the advice and guidance available to people earlier

Tier 2 – Help when you need it: helping people stay independent for longer with the right short term support

Tier 3 – Ongoing support for those who need it: empowering people, and their families, to have more control over their long term care and support choices