Support from your local authority's social services team, often called social care or community care, can help you to continue to lead an independent life.
Social care can include the following types of help:
For more information on the help you can receive from your local social services department, please see our Help from Social Services booklet:
The rules for accessing social care are different in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but there are many similarities in how social care is accessed in practice.
This page will guide you through the general process of getting support and point out where there are differences between countries and where you can get more information.
In England, Wales and Scotland social care is delivered by your local authority’s social services department. In Northern Ireland it is delivered by your Health and Social Care Trust. In all cases, the first step to getting social care support is usually to contact your local authority or Health and Social Care Trust to explain that you have sight loss and would like an assessment of your needs.
If you need to request a social care assessment or complain about delays in getting one then you may wish to complete one of our template precedent letters below and send this to your local authority:
Once your local authority or Health and Social Care Trust are made aware that you may have a need for care and support, they have a legal duty to carry out an assessment. Before this happens you may be offered support by a "Sensory Impairment Team" at the local authority or health and social care trust, which can provide sight loss specific support, such as visual impairment rehabilitation.
Vision rehabilitation is a period of training delivered by Rehabilitation Officers, often called ROVIs. It's designed to help people with sight loss maintain their independence through relearning practical daily and mobility skills.
It can also include providing community equipment and minor adaptations where appropriate such as:
Minor adaptations include things such as:
In England, local authorities have a legal obligation under the Care Act 2014 to help people with sight loss develop practical skills and strategies to maintain independence, including:
If you are based in England and are having difficulties accessing this support then please read and complete our toolkit:
Staying independent (England) (Word)
If you are based in Wales, you also have a legal right to free rehabilitation services for at least the first 6 weeks, but you may be means-tested for contributions towards any community equipment or adaptations you are assessed as needing. If you are having difficulties accessing rehabilitation, you may wish to use our template precedent letter to complain to the council regarding this:
Accessing rehabilitation template letter (Wales) (Word)
In Scotland there is not a legal right relating to free rehabilitation but there is guidance recommending its provision and so in practice this will often be available free of charge. If you are having difficulties accessing rehabilitation, you may wish to use our template precedent letter to complain to the council regarding this:
If you have long term care and support needs that can’t be addressed by rehabilitation alone, then a full assessment of your needs may be required to see if you are eligible for support. The eligibility criteria for social care assessments is different across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, please see our region specific factsheets for more information:
We have a social care assessment toolkit to help you prepare for your social care assessment. The toolkit allows you to create a record of your care and support needs, which you then can print off to hand in to the professional carrying out your assessment. Click the links below to download:
If you have been found eligible for social care support there are various ways that you can receive the support from your local authority or Health and Social Care trust, such as:
You may be required to contribute towards your social care. Whether this applies to you will depend on where you are living and what type of support you receive.
There are different charging rules in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There are also different charging rules depending on whether you are being supported in residential care or you are getting care in your own home.
For advice and information on social care charges for residential care, you can contact Age UK, who have different helpline numbers depending upon where you are based:
England: 0800 678 1602
Wales: 08000 223 444
Scotland: 0800 12 44 222
Northern Ireland: 0808 808 7575
If you are based in England you can use our Toolkit for challenging home care charges, to check whether you are being charged the correct amount for social care at home. It includes template letters that will help you request a review if you feel you are being overcharged.
If you are in Wales, you can find out more in our Guide to social care Wales:
If you are in Scotland, you can find out more in our Guide to social care Scotland:
There can be disputes between you and your local authority or health and social care trust. This could be because of delays, their decision about your eligibility for support, the level of your care package or the cost of what you have been asked to pay.
You may need to lodge a complaint with your local authority or Health and Social Care Trust. If you need assistance with this then contact our Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email [email protected], our Legal Rights Service may be able to assist you with this.
There are different complaints procedures across the UK which you can read more about in our guides to social care:
We have a general template complaint letter that you may wish to use to lodge your complaint:
If the local authority is funding your care then you can complain to them (as well as the care provider) about the care you are receiving. We have a set of template letters to assist you with this here:
Our Legal Rights Service is accredited with the Advice Quality Standard, an independent accreditation for organisations giving advice to the general public.
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