East Sussex Adult Social Care strategy 2023
Contents
1. What is adult social care, anyway?
2. What adult social care in East Sussex looks like now
3. How we developed this strategy
4. What people told us: our six priorities
5. How we will respond: our ‘we will’ statements
6. How will we know this strategy is making a difference?
7. But what about…?
8. How to get in touch or find support
9. Looking for a rewarding career?
10. Tell us what you think of this strategy
Overview of this strategy
What is adult social care, anyway? Is it care homes? Is it care within your own home? Is it helping people to leave hospital safely? Is it services around domestic abuse, homelessness and substance misuse? It’s all that and more.
What is a strategy? A strategy is a long-term plan that describes how we want something to look like in the future, and how changes will be put in place to build on the way things are now. For this strategy, it is a plan about the future of adult social care in East Sussex.
What adult social care in East Sussex looks like right now. 559,000 people live in East Sussex. The population is predicted to increase by 4.1% by 2032. There is a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over compared to other places in the UK. There are an estimated 69,241 unpaid carers in East Sussex. The most common primary reason for drawing on care and support is having a learning disability for working age adults, and needing personal care for older adults. In 2022/23 East Sussex County Council budgeted £306.4 million for adult social care, 33.3% of our overall gross budget.[1]
How we developed this strategy. We wanted this plan to be driven by what people told us were their priorities, rather than what professionals might think people need. Our Citizens’ Panel helped us identify ways to reach local people. Over 500 people who need care and support, their carers and family members responded to surveys telling us what was important about adult social care. 186 people took part in focus groups or one-to-one interviews, telling us why things were important about adult social care, and how they wanted our help. Using all the feedback from local people, and with the help of our Citizens’ Panel, we agreed six priorities for this strategy. We engaged with staff who work within or alongside adult social care to agree how we respond to the six priorities.
Our six priorities are:
1. Right support, right place, right time
2. Information and communication about care and support
3. Cost of living and cost of care, now and in the future
4. A suitable home
5. Personal connections with others
6. Group activities, hobbies and volunteering
How we will respond: our ‘we will’ statements.
We will…
1.2 Work with care and support providers to respond to workforce constraints, such as supporting organisations to be well-led and overcoming barriers to taking up training.
1.3 Build on the ways our staff enable residents to access timely support for physical, mental health and emotional wellbeing, including support beyond those services available from East Sussex County Council.
1.4 Help people through key changes at different stages of life, including helping people prepare for and navigate changes in later life and supporting young people to prepare for adulthood.
2.2 Find new ways to provide timely updates to people about the services they are getting, or have applied for, such as using digital tools and information generated automatically.
2.3 Make sure there are places in the community available to support people to get and return information about care and support services, including help with online financial assessments.
3.2 Improve how we support people around welfare benefits and debt management.
4.1 Co-ordinate the information, advice and support people receive to live in homes suitable for their needs by exploring different ways of working, improving access to equipment and testing new and innovative ways that modern technology can enable people to live independently.
4.2 Work with partners and residents to promote the safe accommodation and support available to people at risk of abuse using a range of channels and methods.
5.2 Work with social care providers to engage with and support carers, building on the tailored support available to connect groups of carers with shared needs and interests.
6.2 Reduce barriers to people accessing volunteering, or barriers for service providers in hosting volunteers, including developing ways to promote volunteering around people’s passions and hobbies.
How will we know this strategy is making a difference? We will adapt the way feedback is gathered from people receiving adult social care services so that it links to our six priorities. We will also work with partners and other service providers to help residents (including those not receiving services) to share their experiences of those priorities. We will also explore how other evidence could measure the progress of our ‘we will’ statements.
But what about…? We want to recognise other aspects of adult social care as important, which were not highlighted by most residents we engaged with on this strategy. This includes safeguarding, a range of public health support, integrating health and social care services, and more. This strategy doesn’t sit on its own in isolation. It aligns with key strategies and plans such as the Council Plan 2023/24 | East Sussex County Council; our Healthy lives, healthy people: East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board strategy and the Sussex Integrated Care System strategy Improving Lives Together - Sussex Health and Care.
To get in touch with us, find support, or find jobs in adult social care: more information is in sections eight to ten of this strategy.
1. What is adult social care, anyway?
An introduction from our director and our lead member for Adult Social Care and Health at East Sussex County Council
Adult social care. Much talked about - often misunderstood or invisible until we need it. Is it care homes? Is it care within your own home? Is it helping people to leave hospital safely? Is it services around domestic abuse, homelessness and substance misuse.
It’s all those things and some.
We aim to enable people who need care and support to live 'gloriously ordinary lives' by supporting them in ways that work for them as individuals; whether that’s occupational therapists helping to plan and organise adaptations to someone’s home; care workers in dementia care homes bringing people’s talents to the fore; supported living services enabling people to lead the life they want to live. And so much more.
Care and support can happen in people’s homes, a care home, at a day centre, or in other places. We offer support for working age and older adults through our mental health, learning disability and physical disability services.
Adult social care can be paid for in different ways depending on what people can afford to pay and what help they need. Some people's care and support is funded (either fully or in part) by East Sussex County Council. Other people pay for their care and support out of their own personal finances.
Adult social care includes carers looking after a friend, family member or neighbour who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, can’t manage without their unpaid support. The support they offer local people is invaluable.
Making sure people are safe from abuse and harm (safeguarding) is part of adult social care too. It’s how we and our partners protect the health and wellbeing of adults with care and support needs. We aim to do this in a way which supports individuals to make choices and have control over how they want to live their lives.
“Adult social care is about care and support for people over 18 who may have a physical disability, a learning disability, or physical or mental ill health.”
One in five of us
It’s estimated that 10 million of us draw on or provide care and support to adults in England at any one time, according to the adult social care reform white paper People at the Heart of Care.
That 10 million translates into almost one in five people - so it’s more than time to bring adult social care into the light.
“Publishing this strategy means that people will have a clearer idea of what they can expect from us; and it gives direction for staff and services, wherever they work.”
Ambitious but also realistic
We spend around a third of the county council’s gross overall budget on adult social care in East Sussex and we want to make sure that money is spent where it can have the most impact: to be ambitious while acknowledging the need to be realistic, set against the backdrop of longstanding funding and resource challenges.
Whilst funding is not a barrier to meeting the eligible needs[2] of local people, we know that difficult decisions have to be made regarding the ways we help prevent or delay the need for care and support in the future.
Since 2012/13, adult social care has made over fifty million pounds worth of savings. We’ve done that by running services more efficiently and reducing the amount spent on some types of support, forming part of the council’s response to national funding issues. With inflation at levels not seen for decades, and uncertainty about how much long-term funding will be allocated to local authorities by the government, we continue to face significant financial challenges.
And knowing that the demand for care and support is only going to increase year on year. Things aren’t perfect: but if we only do what we’ve always done then things never change. Equally, there’s no doubt that people in East Sussex benefit from some fantastic support and excellent services; there are things we do very well here, and we’re rightly proud of that.
We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who works in care and support, and to all the carers in the county - especially over these last few years as we have all pulled together to get through the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that everyone remains under significant pressure in terms of recovering from the impact of COVID-19, whether that be personally or professionally, alongside the increasing challenge of finding and keeping staff.
This strategy represents us asking and listening to people and jointly thinking about how we could improve adult social care for the benefit of those who draw on it, their families and carers, and for those who may need it in the future.
Please do keep talking to us, sharing your thoughts and letting us know what’s working well for you and where we still need to improve: in this way we can make sure adult social care in East Sussex delivers what you need to ‘live well’.
Mark Stainton, Director of Adult Social Care and Health, East Sussex County Council
Carl Maynard, Lead Member of Adult Social Care and Health, East Sussex County Council
2. What adult social care in East Sussex looks like now
We are a rural and urban county with a growing and ageing population.
The difference in life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas in East Sussex is 11 years for men and 10 years for women.
3 Office of National Statistics, Mid 2021
4 Integrated Community Equipment Service, Sep 2022 to Sep 2023
5 Careium, Jan 2023
6 LAS, March 2023
7 Care for the Carers, 2018 projection based on 2011 census data
8 East Sussex Finance, Business Services Department
3. How we developed this strategy
We wanted this plan to be driven by what people told us were their priorities, rather than what professionals might think people need.
We wanted to know what was important to our residents, including people who draw on care and support, their carers, and families. We also wanted to reach people who may need care and support in the future, or those who need help now but may not be getting it for a range of reasons.
Throughout the process, a group of 16 residents that we refer to as our ‘Citizens’ Panel’ has been involved in helping us to design and work up the strategy and their support has been invaluable. The panel will also work with us beyond the launch of this strategy, work with us to deliver it, and review the impact of the changes this plan delivers, holding us to account.
Surveys
Our ‘listening’ took the form of surveys: ‘Living Well in East Sussex’ Living well in East Sussex - East Sussex - Citizen Space which ran across the summer of 2022 and was available online, on paper, in Easy Read and in several languages.
We know that some people would be unable or unwilling to complete a written survey and so we asked some residents our survey questions through one-to-one interviews (using interpreters where required).
With the help of local community organisations and groups, we took our surveys and interviews out to places and people we don’t regularly hear from.
Running in tandem to our public survey was ‘Listening to You’, a survey which goes out to people and their carers who have recently had an assessment or review with the Adult Social Care and Health department at East Sussex County Council. Over 500 people responded to these two surveys.
Focus groups
Analysis of these surveys gave us the evidence on which to base the things that were most important to residents, and enabled us to identify, with the support of our Citizens’ Panel, the six priorities of local people as set out in section four of this strategy.
We took these priorities to a range of focus groups to explore them further, involving another 186 people. With some residents, where appropriate, we held discussions through one-to-one interviews instead of in groups.
The majority of our focus groups were organised by experts within voluntary, community, and social enterprise services.
The groups included older people, those with dementia, cognition or memory issues, people with a learning disability, people with a physical disability, parent/carers, people with sensory impairments, carers, people who are neurodiverse, those who have mental health issues, young people, those with substance misuse issues, homeless people, those who’ve experienced domestic abuse and people with needs not currently being met by care and support services.
Workshops
Bringing all that feedback together, we then asked people working within or alongside health and social care services to respond to the priorities of local people and identify how they could improve people’s experiences of receiving care and support.
We also reviewed what we called our ‘evidence base’ which is a collection of research and key facts or figures illustrating good practice in adult social care, other feedback obtained from residents, and intelligence about how services are performing.
Next, we held workshops with senior decision-makers and key staff who work within or alongside adult social care to consider the six priorities and how we can respond to the things raised through all the engagement described above. This included people from East Sussex County Council, district and borough councils, NHS Sussex, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and the private sector. Throughout each workshop, colleagues were asked to focus on what could be done to deliver the aspects of care and support that make the most difference to local people and recognise any constraints or barriers to delivering what people had asked for.
In this way, we have shaped our strategy to reflect and respond to what residents feel is important to them to make the most difference to people’s lives.
“Our hope is that this strategy will explain how, in East Sussex, we are working to deliver services that are specific to this county and have the needs of local residents at the heart of what they do.”
4. What people told us: our six priorities
Our six priorities are described below. These priorities reflect the things that local people told us were most important to live a good life. Throughout the feedback people gave us, there were also some ‘over-arching’ themes that underpin each of the six priorities; these themes were:
Accessibility;
inclusion; independence; treating people as individuals;
‘joined-up’ services; well-trained workers.
1. Right support, right place, right time
Definition: Having access to good quality care and support services somewhere suitable that meets people’s needs and at a time and frequency that keeps them well.
Including:
Reduce delays in starting assessments or support:
· Faster service response from adult social care
· Care and support without having to complain to get it
· Proactive support to prevent increasing need
“[I would like] a more joined-up service and quicker response times.”
Survey respondent
More personalised and inclusive assessments or support:
· Help for people to articulate their needs and ask the right questions
· Accessible venues to receive support in
· Assessments that feel like a two-way discussion between worker and individual
“Acknowledge that everyone is unique: different experiences, needs and issues.”
Multiple disadvantage focus group participant
More care and support:
· More support for carers or family members
· Social workers at annual reviews
· Allow access to services more than once
“I would like to see more options available for short term carer support in times of carer crisis, along with more support for working carers so I can continue to work”
Survey respondent
Consistent and well-trained care and support workers:
· One social worker or key worker assigned to each person
· More specialist teams and volunteers to support specialist needs
“Ensure staff are properly trained, and do not promise what they can’t deliver.”
Substance misuse focus group participant
Frontline staff having more flexibility over types of support they deliver:
· Time and flexibility to understand people with different conditions
· Consistency and quality around flexibility of support
· Give care staff the reward and recognition they deserve
“I had such a positive experience of occupational therapists helping me return home after rehab and hospital: this service made such a difference to my life.”
Older people’s focus group participant
Residents having more choice over where and when they receive support
· More out of hours support for people with substance misuse in a crisis
· Services that are available in a timely way and a suitable location
· More refuges for women with substance misuse issues
“[I would like] more flexibility in times [carer workers] come and for longer.”
Survey respondent
Co-ordinated care and support that minimises the burden on people and their carers
· People shouldn’t have to repeat their story or circumstances multiple times
· More ‘joined up’ services and workers
· More proactive referrals from GPs into adult social care
“[It’s frustrating] to provide them the same information over and over again.”
Parent carer focus group participant
2. Information and communication about care and support
Definition: Having accessible and available information about care and support. Communicating information in a variety of formats that are clear, succinct and readily available.
Including:
Make it easier for people to access and share information about adult social care services they are receiving (or have been offered) in a timely way
• Quicker response to enquiries and providing updates
• Information sharing across departments and services
• Not being passed between multiple teams or phone options before reaching the right person
"You want to feel in control of your life, after everything we have been through, having some control by having information is important.”
Domestic abuse focus group participant
More promotion and outreach around what adult social care services offer and how to access them
• More promotion of centralised contact points such as Health and Social Care Connect
• Make sure online service directories and websites are easy to navigate and use simple search terms
• Help people before they reach crisis – including sending information by post
“I found out about adult social care through hearsay and the Yellow Pages, I wouldn’t know how to search for it online”
Older people’s focus group participant
Easier to access information in alternative formats and from trusted sources
• Not ‘jumping through hoops’ to get information in another format or language
• Provide face-to-face options to access and discuss information, such as libraries or community hubs
• Offer written information to help people remember what was shared verbally
“Easy Read would be better to help me understand.”
Survey respondent
Simplify language and communication to make it easier to understand
• No confusing conversations or paperwork and language from adult social care aligned with other services, such as children’s services
• Less ‘wordy’ websites
• Workers talking slowly and allowing more time for people to think and respond
“[Information should] be in really simple English and not big words.”
Survey respondent
3. Cost of living and cost of care, now and in the future
Definition: Having enough money to live the way we want to and how finances impact on care and support.
Including:
Support people to manage their daily living costs
• Provide information and classes on how to budget
• Offer information on how to manage / reduce bills, energy and food costs
• Identify people at risk of ill health because they can’t afford heating
“I would like to learn more about financial management, and how I might have managed my money more effectively.”
Survey respondent
Help people to manage their income, benefits, savings or debts
• Information about financial help after circumstances change, provided promptly and support to apply for financial help
• More support for people facing barriers to accessing benefits
• Help those who draw on care and support who are at risk of unemployment
“I would like to see more information in simple language about help with finances”
Survey respondent
Clarity and advice over the cost of care, now and in the future
• Encourage people to think and talk about care costs before they need care
• Faster systems to check eligibility for, and apply for, help
• Being clear about what those who pay for their own care can expect from adult social care
“If people had an idea in their mind of a number they would have to pay, then they know where they stand… It’s the not knowing [that’s a problem].”
Vision impairment focus group participant
More subsidised care and support to people facing financial difficulties
• Warm spaces in the community that are free to access
• Subsidise energy costs for people who need equipment to stay well
• Encourage people who are eligible for free or subsidised support to access it
“I got help to buy a fridge freezer, it broke down just before Christmas, I also got food vouchers, people need to know about this great support.”
Learning disability focus group participant
4. A suitable home
Definition: Our homes, and how well they are adapted to meet our needs, help us live independently, and keep us safe
Including:
Home equipment, adaptations and assistive technology to enable independence
• Small adaptations and technology can make a big difference, such as bathroom adaptations and Telecare
• More information about what is available and from whom
• Listening to what people say they want, not what services think they need
“It’s important to have the right equipment.”
Survey respondent
Improvements and repairs to enable safe accommodation
• Support people with complex needs to maintain their home
• Support people who are unable to furnish properties when they acquire housing
• Identify and support family members whose homes have been damaged by people facing substance misuse
“When communications to the landlord are required, adult social care should help.”
Unmet need focus group participant
Enable people to live in, or move into, suitable and comfortable accommodation
• Help more people with a learning disability to live in supported accommodation
• Help people understand the benefits and extra support that a care home can offer
• Support young people at risk of homelessness to find accommodation
“I live in supported accommodation where there is staff there all the time. It's important that I've got my own space.”
Safe accommodation for people at higher risk of abuse or harm
• Greater awareness and outreach to women who live alone and those at higher risk of domestic abuse
• Help those at risk of abuse to access support or safe spaces in community settings such as food banks
• Train carers on how to keep homes safe for people they care for
“…someone who will help them navigate services and assist the victim to engage with helpful services would be so beneficial for someone going through or coming out from [domestic abuse]”.
Domestic abuse focus group participant
5. Personal connections with others
Definition: Supporting people to have close relationships with partners, family, friends and neighbours. Reducing isolation and loneliness.
Including:
Help those who need care and support to connect with friends and family or their neighbours
• Use buddy schemes to help people connect
• Train staff to help support some people with complex needs to have romantic/sexual relationships
“People with mental health issues need support building a network of people, not just peers or others with mental health issues but people from all walks of life.”
Mental health focus group participant
Enable friends, family and neighbours to understand and help those who need care and support
• Community support and mediation that involves wider families
• Tailored opportunities for carers to connect
• Support carers to connect with other family members
“Sharing knowledge and expertise with others who've 'been there'.”
Carers’ focus group participant
Identify and support those who are at most risk of isolation
• Help a range of services (beyond adult social care) identify loneliness and signpost to support
• Support people living in accommodation-based services to connect and support each other
• Offer people at higher risk of loneliness more face-to-face or telephone-based support
“Support to begin friendships and opportunities to meet people. Provide support with initial steps towards this.”
Learning disability focus group participant
6. Group activities, hobbies and volunteering
Definition: Organised activities and groups we join for fun, to stay active or to create a sense of community. Being involved in hobbies and volunteering.
Including:
Connect people to their communities through group activities or volunteering
• Support people at risk of loneliness to volunteer and connect
• Offer more tailored activities or volunteering opportunities for people of similar ages
• Help people overcome barriers to volunteering, such as impact on benefits
“Older people who get involved with volunteering can end up supporting other groups of people, for example homeless people, so having connections with different groups in the community is nice.”
Older people’s focus group participant
Help people get outdoors, access nature and be physically active
• Promote sport, walking outdoors and healthy living clubs
“Getting exercise and being out in nature in the fresh air helps you keep healthy.”
Substance misuse focus group participant
Help people to explore hobbies and be creative
- Encourage more people to take part in creative activities, e.g. knitting, music and performance
- Support people to continue their hobbies in community locations and connect with others while doing so, e.g. use of personal assistants
“Love to paint, make a mess - keeps me busy and sane.”
Survey respondent
Help people access inclusive group activities
• Advertise group activities in a range of formats and provide transport
• Support people with additional needs to take part in group activities alongside those who don’t have additional needs
• Make sure community activities and venues are accessible outside of working hours and enable people to participate without their carer having to be present
“Community is important to both me and my husband as our mental health suffers when groups are not running. Socialising is vitally important to us and our well-being.”
Survey respondent
5. How we will respond: our ‘we will’ statements
The following ‘we will’ statements outline how people working within or alongside, adult social care in East Sussex, will respond to each of the six priorities of local people set out in this strategy.
This includes services and support provided by East Sussex County Council and other organisations in the public sector, private sector, and voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector. It also includes other ways community groups or residents can enable people to live well.
Many aspects of the care and support offered by our Adult Social Care and Health department will focus on meeting the needs of people who are eligible for care and support, and their carers, as defined by the government’s Care Act 2014. These statements also reflect ways in which we and other services can prevent or delay the need for care and support.
We know that actions speak louder than words, and so we will develop an action plan in 2023 that sets out further details on how and when each of these statements will be delivered.
1. Right support, right place, right time:
We will…
1.1 Build on our approach to personalised assessments and support, learning from residents’ experiences so that people feel treated as individuals and experience their contact with adult social care as a two-way conversation between resident and worker.
1.2 Work with care and support providers to respond to workforce constraints, such as supporting organisations to be well-led and overcoming barriers to taking up training.
1.3 Build on the ways our staff enable residents to access timely support for physical, mental health and emotional wellbeing, including support beyond those services available from East Sussex County Council.
1.4 Help people through key changes at different stages of life, including helping people prepare for and navigate changes in later life and supporting young people to prepare for adulthood.
2. Information and communication about care and support
We will…
2.1 Use clear and inclusive language and alternative formats to explain to residents and partners what adult social care offers, including how and when to contact East Sussex County Council.
2.2 Find new ways to provide timely updates to people about the services they are getting, or have applied for, such as using digital tools and information generated automatically.
2.3 Make sure there are places in the community available to support people to get and return information about care and support services, including help with online financial assessments.
3. Cost of living and cost of care, now and in the future
We will…
3.1 Improve how staff and services direct people to financial information, advice and guidance, and identify people who are withdrawing from care because of financial barriers.
3.2 Improve how we support people around welfare benefits and debt management.
4. A suitable home
We will…
4.2 Work with partners and residents to promote the safe accommodation and support available to people at risk of abuse using a range of channels and methods.
5. Personal connections
We will…
5.1 Bring services and communities together around neighbourhoods and/or groups of people with shared needs and interests to develop access to, and availability of, activities and other support aimed at addressing loneliness.
5.2 Work with social care providers to engage with and support carers, building on the tailored support available to connect groups of carers with shared needs and interests.
6. Group activities, hobbies and volunteering
We will…
6.1 Enable people to connect with communities, get active and live well by working together with residents and community organisations / groups to identify and develop inclusive and accessible activities.
6.2 Reduce barriers to people accessing volunteering, or barriers for service providers in hosting volunteers, including developing ways to promote volunteering around people’s passions and hobbies.
We want to be open and honest about what we think local services can and can’t do in response to local people’s priorities.
However, we will also: continue to have a dialogue with both residents and staff about the ‘we will’ statements and strategy action plan and be open to new opportunities and changes in the way we meet resident needs.
Our strategy and action plan will also take learning from peers working in adult social care in other counties, using the Social Care Future community of support to help us explore different ways of working.
6. How will we know this strategy is making a difference?
To know whether this strategy ‘does what it says on the tin’, that it delivers what local people have told us is important to them, we will keep involving residents in monitoring and evaluating its impact.
We will ask local people to continue telling us whether the six priorities in this strategy are still the most important and whether their experience of them is good - or what else needs to change.
We will adapt the way feedback is gathered from people receiving adult social care services through East Sussex County Council so that it links to our six priorities.
We will also work with partners and other care and support providers[3] to help residents (including those not receiving services) to share their experiences and needs linked to adult social care and our six priorities.
Where appropriate, we will also use evidence provided by local services to measure the progress of our ‘we will’ statements and action plan.
The feedback and evidence we draw upon to monitor this strategy will be reviewed in partnership with local people, such as those on our Citizens’ Panel. They will hold us to account and help us steer the next steps required to build on and improve care and support in East Sussex.
We have assessed the potential impact of our strategy on people with characteristics as defined under the Equality Act 2010 and will monitor how the delivery of our strategy impacts groups of people with those characteristics.
7. But what about…?
This strategy has been developed following wide-ranging consultations with local people and organisations, and in doing so we believe its priorities are representative of many different views and experiences.
But there are other aspects of adult social care that we want to recognise as important, which most residents did not highlight in their feedback for this strategy. This includes the valuable work done in East Sussex on:
· safeguarding vulnerable adults,
· delivering a range of public health programmes aimed at keeping residents healthy and well for longer (such as our ‘stewardship’ approach to tackling loneliness),
· addressing health inequalities,
· integrating health and social care services,
· preparing for, or implementing, key pieces of government reform for adult social care, such as those in People at the Heart of Care,
· developing East Sussex as a centre of excellence for voluntary, community and social enterprise sector commissioning.
· supporting people to into employment and work
All these other aspects of adult social care and more, remain an important part of how we will help people in East Sussex to live well, and we will make sure that this strategy links to and informs those other aspects of our work.
This strategy doesn’t sit on its own in isolation. It aligns with other key strategies and plans such as the Council Plan 2023/24 | East Sussex County Council; the Healthy lives, healthy people: East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board strategy and the Sussex Integrated Care System strategy, Improving Lives Together - Sussex Health and Care.
That’s because all these plans aim to improve the lives of people in East Sussex by supporting them to live the life they want to lead. Both our adult social care strategy and the other plans or strategies listed above aim to offer short term, urgent or longer-term care and support when it’s needed, where it’s needed and how it’s needed. This strategy also describes ways in which we will keep vulnerable people safe, help people to help themselves (e.g. through the work planned with our public health teams), and make best use of resources (such as those who work in or alongside adult social care, and the equipment / technology available to assist staff or residents). Many aspects of this work require adult social care to work in partnership with other local services, and identify ways to integrate our services with others, to maximise the impact it has for local people.
8. How to get in touch or find support
There are a range of ways to get in touch with adult social care at East Sussex County Council. Whether you want to ring, text, write, email, check out web-based directories, or connect with us on social media.
We have a range of online information available, and you can also complete online assessments to see if you might be eligible for support and what you may need to pay. Our online directory is available at Home - East Sussex 1Space and our forms to assess yourself are available at Assess yourself | East Sussex County Council. Alternatively you can contact us via:
Health and Social Care Connect (HSCC)
If you want to:
· apply for care and support
· get support for a carer
0345 60 80
191
8:00am to 8:00pm, seven days a week (including bank holidays)
Text HSCC on: 07797 878 111
Minicom via type talk: 18001 0345 60 80 191
Out of hours emergencies: 0345 60 80 191 and select option 2 to connect to our emergency duty service.
Write to HSCC:
Health
and Social Care Connect
St. Mary’s House
52 St Leonard’s Road
Eastbourne BN21 3UU
If you want to report abuse or neglect, please phone us: 0345 60 80 191
Adult social care: what we do and how we do it
Guide to Adult Social Care in East Sussex
Easy read guide to adult social care in East Sussex
To get copies of
these leaflets or any other leaflets or factsheets –
please
contact HSCC on 0345 60 80 191, using Minicom via type talk on
18001 034560
or email : HSCC@eastsussex.gov.uk
Find out about services and support
If you are interested in a specific service, looking for support or simply want to see what’s out there in East Sussex, please take a look at these directories:
· East Sussex 1Space aims to provide local care and support in ‘one place’ It is an online directory which helps you to find groups and organisations that offer care, support and wellbeing services to people in East Sussex. It's free to use and services are listed for free
· Support with confidence: a directory of vetted and approved providers who offer a wide range of care and support services for adults in East Sussex
· East Sussex Community Information Service is a database of community information and events: it’s free to list and free to use
Connect with us on social media:
East
Sussex County Council Twitter
East
Sussex County Council Facebook
East
Sussex County Council YouTube
Learning
Disability Services for Adults in East Sussex on
Facebook
Learning
Disability Partnership Board on
Facebook
Make a complaint or give feedback
If you are unhappy with a service, please contact the person you have been dealing with or their manager. Often things can be put right quickly.
If you have already done this or would rather talk to someone else, please contact us:
01273
481242
When you contact us, we will ask you about: your concerns and how you think these could be resolved.
More information:
· on our website: Making a complaint | East Sussex County Council
· in our leaflets: How to make a complaint or give feedback about Adult Social Care and Health services | East Sussex County Council
Easy Read: your feedback is important
to us
9. Looking for a rewarding career?
Did you know that working in adult social care offers opens up many different pathways and opportunities? Come and work with us; we could do so much more together.
Whether you are interested in working in a ‘hands on’ care role, as a manager of care services, in business admin and support; or maybe as an apprentice - there’s a role for you.
Here’s a small selection of films featuring people talking about why they chose to come and work in care roles East Sussex:
Why
our staff choose to work in Adult Social Care and Health at East
Sussex County Council - YouTube
Choose a career working with:
Learning Disability services -
YouTube
Occupational Therapy -
YouTube
Find out about job vacancies at East Sussex County Council:
Jobs | East Sussex County Council
website
 |
10. Tell us what you think of this strategy
If you would like to share your thoughts on this strategy, please get in touch.
Email: ASCPersonalisation@eastsussex.gov.uk
Phone: 01273 481565
Web: Adult Social Care Strategy | East Sussex County Council
Write: Adult Social Care strategy, FREEPOST, ESCC, PUBLIC HEALTH,
County Hall, Lewes BN7 1UE