Do you need information or advice about adults health and social care in Calderdale? Your first point of contact is our Gateway to Care service. Our trained advisors will be able to help you.
At times, you may need the help of specialist advisors or a social worker. Gateway to Care can put you in touch with the right people, please contact us:
- Phone: 01422 393000.
- Email: gatewaytocare@calderdale.gov.uk.
- Website: Online contact form
Age UK have published a very useful leaflet. It has advice to help improve the health and general fitness of people of any age. It is written mainly for people who are about 70 years or older. Please read:
Eligibility for support
For the more complex needs, you will probably need to have an assessment. This includes:
- Whether you may need social care services for your own needs;
- or to help support you if you are caring for someone else.
What is an assessment?
It is simply a discussion with you. You can tell us about what you find difficult in looking after yourself or being independent in the community. We want to hear your views on:
- How you are managing.
- What you can and cannot do.
- What help you feel you need.
The level of support we can offer at the end of this process is based on "eligibility criteria". This looks at levels of need as set out by the Care Act 2014. This is to make sure that there is consistent, clear and fair access to social care services across the country.
For more on eligibility to services under the Care Act 2014, see: Care Act: Guide to Adult Social Care.
Independent Age have published a useful step-by-step guide if you or someone you know needs support with their day-to-day living.
For more details or for an assessment, please contact: Gateway to Care.
Use of your NHS number in Adults Health and Social Care (AHSC)
If you get support from the Council, the NHS may share your NHS number with AHSC. This is so that both are using the same number to identify you while giving your care. By using the same number the NHS and AHSC can work together more closely to improve your care and support.
Your NHS number is accessed through an NHS service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). AHSC sends basic information like your name, address and date of birth to the PDS. This is so they can find your NHS number. Once retrieved from the PDS the NHS number is stored on Calderdale Council's AHSC system, called CIS.
The NHS number is also used on a small number of printed materials. These are used by health and social care workers when providing direct care.
The recorded information gives clinical professionals (involved in your care) access to current information when they have contact with you. The shared information is linked together using your NHS number. Access to recorded information is strictly controlled based on the role of the professional. For example, social workers will only have access to information they need to carry out their social care duties.
Recorded information may contain social care details like:
- Carers: name, address, phone number (locally held) and relationship/
- Allocated workers: name, phone number, team, role and start date.
- Referral: (contact) source, sub-source, date and outcome.
- Support plan: (service) type, provider and start date.
- Care plan: (reablement plan) start date and end date.
- Disabilities: disability onset date.
- Occupational therapy: (OT assessment) start date, end date and outcome.
The use of joined-up information across health and social care brings many benefits. One example is the discharge of patients into social care. Hospital discharge delays can happen because details of social care involvement are not available to staff on the ward. The hospital simply does not know who to contact to discuss the ongoing care of a patient. By linking social care and health information it helps hospital staff to see if social care support is in place. Also, details of the most appropriate contact. Ongoing care can be planned earlier in the process because hospital staff will know whom to talk to.
This type of coordinated support brings many benefits that include:
- Fewer unnecessary clinical tests.
- More accurate prescriptions.
- Better self-management for patients.
- Better co-ordinated and safer care.
- More time to spend on clinical care.
- Less paperwork.
- More efficient use of healthcare services.
The addition of adult social care data, enabled via the storage of the NHS number, will bring further benefits:
- Better co-ordinated and safer care across health and social care enabled through the sharing of real-time information.
- Better coordination of discharges from hospital into social care, as explained above.
- More time to spend on planning and co-ordinating social care. This is because health staff can identify and involve social care staff earlier in the process.
- Earlier intervention to maximise the opportunities or reablement services leading to greater independence for patients.
- Less paperwork and more efficient use of social care resources.
The NHS number will also be printed on a subset of social care printed documentation. This is used to communicate between health and social care organisations. It brings the benefit of better co-ordinated and safe care across health and social care. This is by using the unique identifier, rather than relying on name and date of birth to identify a person.
These printed forms may relate to matters like:
- Referral.
- Assessment.
- Support and care planning.
- Reablement and rehabilitation.
- Medical consent.
- GP consent.
- Transitional beds.
- Deprivation of liberty.
- Case review.
You have the right to object to the processing of your NHS Number. This will not stop you from getting care, but may limit how we can support you. To help you decide, we will:
- Discuss with you how this may affect our ability to provide you with care;
- and any other options you have.
To object to the use of your NHS Number or to discuss how it is used, contact Gateway to Care:
- Email: mynhsnumber@calderdale.gov.uk.
- Phone: 01422 393000.