Long-term support
Long-term support
Information about long-term support and services.
Home care and care homes
Information about finding support at home, choosing a care home, and how we arrange care and support.
Finding a carer or home care provider
Please click here to find information about home care and how to access it.
Choosing a care home
Please click here to find information about residential and nursing homes for older people.
Our Adult Social Care information sheets
Our Information Sheets explain how we arrange care and support for people who need it.
Please click this link to go to our Information Sheet section.
What is a needs assessment?
A needs assessment is a detailed discussion with a trained member of staff, which will produce a written statement of what your needs are, and what you can do to reduce them, or prevent them from getting worse.
If your care and support needs are having a significant impact on your wellbeing, a needs assessment may tell you that you are entitled to assistance from the council.
You don’t have to have a needs assessment to get advice about what support may be available, you may prefer to start by asking for advice.You will then be able to make an informed decision about whether a full needs assessment would be worth your while at present.
A needs assessment is essential if you want the council to pay for long-term care and support services, but if you only need advice, immediate practical help, or equipment or adaptations to your home, you don't have to have a full needs assessment.
You can find out more about paying for care here.
If we assess that you need care and support at home from paid care workers, there are several different ways we can help you to arrange this:
- You can employ your own care workers using a direct payment.
- You can ask us to arrange a service from a home care agency.
- You can make your own arrangement with a home care agency using a direct payment.
- If you can afford it, you can make your own arrangements privately, either with a home care agency or with care workers who you employ.
There is also support available for carers - family or friends who help to meet a person’s care and support needs. More information on this can be found in Information sheet C4.
How do I ask for advice or a needs assessment?
- Phone us on 01670 536 400
- Or email onecall@northumberland.gov.uk
You don’t have to decide in advance whether you want advice or a needs assessment – you can ask for a discussion about that when you contact us.
You can find out more about your options in our information sheets below:
Support for adults with learning disabilities
The council provides eight day centres and two supported living services for adults with learning disabilities.
Council day services for adults
Our day centres help more than 170 adults with learning disabilities to acquire new skills.
These include learning to grow plants, make jewellery, ceramics, cakes and reclaim/sell old furniture, with any money made reinvested in this service.
We provide vulnerable adults with a great opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people and develop confidence and self-esteem while preparing them for future employment or voluntary work. Wherever possible, activities are delivered in the local community, making it easier for people to attend on a regular basis.
These are services we can arrange following an assessment of a person's needs - there are also many day services operated by other organisations which we can arrange, which can often also offer places under a private arrangement.
Please click here for more information about our day services for people with a learning disability.
Supported living services for adults with learning disabilities
The council provides two supported living services for adults with learning disabilities. You can find more information and read the latest Care Quality Commission inspection reports here.
Northumberland Learning Disability Partnership Board
The learning disability partnership board (LDPB) aims to show the values of inclusiveness, respect, dignity and equal partnership in working together locally with people with learning disabilities, and their families, to support better lives for them.
It meets quarterly and is co-chaired by representatives from the local area forums. Guests or representatives from other organisations are invited to report or help with specific work as required.
There are different ways of becoming a member. It may be:
- Because of the job you have.
- You have skills or useful experience.
- You represent an organisation.
- You are elected by a forum.
- You are asked to join by the board.
The board considers government proposals and national guidance alongside local priorities, with the aim of making better lives for people with learning disabilities and their families in Northumberland.
About the learning disability partnership board
The values and principles of the board state that people with learning disabilities:
- Have the same rights as everyone else, which will be promoted and protected.
- Will have the greatest possible choice and control over decisions that affect their lives.
- Will be fully included in the lives of their communities.
- Will be supported to have as much independence as possible.
Members of the board have influenced a range of developments including a charter and standards linked to our quality assurance monitoring, the Hospital Passport and development of the Jack & Josephine programme to support better health and wellbeing.
The LDPB reports annually on local progress. Representatives link to regional partnerships with stakeholders, such as Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, Carers Northumberland, ADAPT and other interested networking groups
Learning disability partnership board meetings
Learning Disability Board meetings take place quarterly, with one meeting acting as the annual general meeting. User forum groups and other user led networks feed into the board meeting from across the county. Dates of meetings can change, but if you require more information on either the board or user forum meetings, please contact the board by email northumberlandechoforum@gmail.com.
The learning disability partnership board is chaired by Sean Brennan, senior manager for learning disability provider services in Northumberland County Council.
For more information, contact Sean Brennan by email at sean.brennan@northumberland.gov.uk or phone 0778 617 3140.
Advocacy support for adults
Advocates are independent professionals who work with people with care and support needs who would have difficulty expressing their views and understanding their rights.
This helps to make sure that people are involved as much as possible in decisions about their health and care.
Advocates can help people to understand their options, know their rights, and say what matters to them.
Your advocate will:
- Listen to what you think about what’s happening to you
- Help you say what you want and don’t want
- Help you understand information about your situation
- Explain your options
- Plan with you about what to do next
Your advocate will not:
- Offer counselling or befriending
- Offer legal advice
- Make decisions for you
- Tell you what to do
If at any point you need support that your advocate cannot offer, they can help you find out whether there is someone who can.
Referrals to the service are made by social care professionals. You can ask to stop advocacy support at any time.
Further information about advocacy is available on the Adapt website. Link to advocacy information.
Sensory support for adults
Information, guidance and support for adults living in Northumberland with sight and/or hearing loss and their families, is available from Northumberland Sensory Service.
This includes:
- Advice, information and guidance around living with sensory loss and accessing activities within the local community.
- Rehabilitation support to help with daily living tasks.
- Orientation and mobility training to aid safe, independent travel.
- Showing people how to use specialist equipment.
- Referral and signposting to other services, voluntary organisations and groups.
These services can be provided in your home, in the community, or at the Northumberland Sensory Service office by appointment.
Northumberland Sensory Service is funded by Northumberland County Council and delivered by the charity BID Services.
Contact details
Northumberland Sensory Service is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
You can call them on 01670 293150 / 07872 403788 or email: Northumberland@bid.org.uk
Further information
- Vision Northumberland https://vision-northumberland.org (formerly Northumberland County Blind Association) is a voluntary association working for visually impaired peoplein Northumberland.
- Cerebral Visual Impairment Society www.cvisociety.org.uk is a charity giving support and information to families affected by CVI.
- Action for Blind People https://www.actionforblindpeople.org.ukprovides practical and emotional advice and support across England to people who are blind or partially sighted and their friends and family.
- Guide Dogs https://www.guidedogs.org.uk provide a range of information, advice and support for people with sigh loss.
- The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) https://www.rnib.org.uk is a charity offering information, support and advice to people in the UK with sight loss.
- Nystagmus Network www.nystagmusnet.org is a source of information and support for those diagnosed with nystagmus and their families.
Supported Living scheme in Blyth
Lyndon Walk is a specialist development of 13 two-bedroom bungalows in Blyth.
The properties, which are owned and managed by the council, have been designed to meet current best practice in dementia design. Link to accommodation and facilities information.
The bungalowsare expected to be available from June 2025.
The scheme is a pilot scheme aiming to support people living with Dementia / Alzheimer’s, and where applicable their informal carer/spouse, to help them continue to live independently in the community and maintain their family and support network.
The properties have been fitted with technology to enable telecare services and the need for these will be assessed on an individual basis, including the potential to use the mobile warden service.
Applications and allocations
Referrals can be made by social care professionals and will be managed through a specialist panel. Allocations will be based on the level of housing and care need, and risk in the persons current accommodation.
There are no age criteria for applying for the accommodation and the bungalows will be suitable for young onset dementia, providing an alternative to older persons care homes.
Where referrals via social care professionals have been exhausted, referrals will be invited via the CNTW Post Diagnosis Team and Admiral Nurses, and then the council’s housing service.
Couples
In the event that a resident with dementia is no longer able to remain at Lyndon Walk and there is a spouse/partner left in the accommodation who does not have a diagnosis of dementia, the council’s housing service will support them to secure alternative accommodation to ensure the properties remain available for people with dementia.
Support for adults living with dementia
Our colleagues in Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust share information from Alzheimer’s Research UK on Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia.
Please click the link to read All about Dementia.
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society, Carers Northumberland and Age UK Northumberland have co-produced these two short films to help people find the right support if they are concerned or are experiencing changes in their memory or thinking.
What to do if you have concerns about memory difficulties
This short film helps to explain what you can expect to happen, if you notice a change in your memory or thinking.
This short film explains some of the services in Northumberland that might be able to help.
The Little Blue Book provides a comprehensive summary of activities and support for older people and people living with Dementia in Northumberland.
If you click on Get your copyto the top right of theirwebpage it will take you to the most up to date version.
Market Position statements
This page lists our plans for supporting disabled adults and those with a long-term illness, and the changes we would like to see in the local market for provision of social care services.
Market Position Statements (and the relationships which support them) help influence the choice and quality of services on offer – and ensure that their supply has the capacity to meet demand and respond sustainably to anticipated changes.
They also help deliver the local authority duty to shape the market in adult care and support introduced by the Care Act 2014.
This is the council's Market Position Statement for 2022 which provides information on the current care market in Northumberland along with current demand and predicted future demand.
Market Position Statement 2022
This is council's Adult Services Commissioning Plans for 2023 - 2024.
Commissioning Plans 2023 - 2024
Extra Care and Supported Living Strategy
A partnership approach, led by social care, working with health and housing commissioners has been adopted to develop and implement this strategy.
Please click here to read our Extra Care and Supported Living Strategy.
Grants to support the development of extra care and supported living in Northumberland.
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