Where to start?

If you feel that you or a loved one needs help to continue living at home or to access the local community then you may be able to get help from your local Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP). A trained person, like a social worker or occupational therapist, will visit to discuss and assess the needs someone has and this is called a community care assessment.

If you have problems getting an assessment

You can get in touch with Citizens Advice Scotland and talk with someone local to you for guidance or contact us at your local Cornerstone branch.

The community care assessment will work out if all or some of the costs of any care you require will be paid for by the HSCP. There are times when the HSCP does not cover all of the costs of care and support and this means the individual or family/guardian will need to pay a contribution towards these.

If you have been assessed for care then it's possible to arrange the care and support you need in a number of different ways. This process is called Self-Directed Support and it means that you or your loved one can have a say in who provides the care and how. There are four options:

Option 1: Direct Payment - I get the money to spend on support I choose

Option 2: Individual Service Fund - I tell the council how to spend the money

Option 3: Arranged Services - I let the council decide how to spend the money

Option 4: Mixed Budget - a mix of options 1, 2 and 3

More information on these options can be found in this easy read booklet A guide to the Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act 2013.

If you live in Aberdeenshire, we also have an impartial advisory service called Cornerstone SDS.

If you've been assessed and want to choose who provides your care, there are many charities and other organisations that can deliver the support you want. If you wish to consider Cornerstone as a provider of your care we would be happy to explore this with you. The choice is yours. You can make an initial enquiry by submitting an enquiry form or by contacting your local Cornerstone branch.