How Adult Social Care Works

How to get help from ASC

The help you need will depend on your situation and how this impacts your wellbeing, so the description below may well vary.

Prevention

Many people engage with us through our prevention activities. These are open to any adult who needs them, and are aimed to provide the support needed to keep people living their lives without formal social worker engagement. These include:

Social work

The preventative support can help many people, but alongside this, some people will need more support from us.

This may require an assessment, in Birmingham this is called a conversation. A social care worker will have a conversation with you about your situation and discuss the options for support that is appropriate. There is no charge for an assessment.

When a social worker is working with you, they will be aiming to promote your independence and wellbeing, through personalised care and support. This focuses on your strengths, the outcomes you want to achieve, and means you have choice and control. This means we are:

  • looking at what you can do rather than what you cannot do
  • having conversations rather than focusing on prescribed assessment questions
  • understanding what is most important to you, your concerns, what you have already tried and what might be the best next steps
  • working with you as an expert in your own life, listening carefully to 'what matters' to you rather than 'what is the matter' with you
  • looking at what family, friends and the communities do to support you. They may also be entitled to an assessment
  • looking at what assistive technology or equipment can do to support you. This may require involvement from the Occupational Therapist service
  • looking at the most appropriate way of using resources to meet your needs
  • being creative and helping you to build upon your strengths

You can contact Adult Social Care via our online form or contact centre: 0121 303 1234.

There are also drop-in sessions for community social workers and occupational therapy services that you can access.

The assessment is carried out by a health or social care expert, with help perhaps from your GP, but you do not have to agree with their decision. For example, if you have an illness or a disability, they might have assessed you on a ‘good’ day.

If you disagree with a decision not to provide support, or you do not think the care package being offered is enough to meet your needs, you can challenge it.

You can find information on challenging the decision from the Money Advice Service.

If you disagree with an eligibility decision that your social worker has made, contact their manager to discuss this first.

If you are still not happy following this conversation, you can contact the complaints team.

Carers

If you are an unpaid carer for someone else, we have a range of services to help support you, including the Carer's Hub.

They can undertake a carer's assessment to help support you. There is no charge for this assessment. They will work with you to find the support that is available to help you.

You can also register for the Carers Emergency Response Service (CERS). This service operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week and, when registered, can provide 48 hours support in an emergency to a carer, while long term care is arranged.

Page last updated: 3 July 2023

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