Your Cornwall

For the most up to date information about accessing services in Cornwall please see Cornwall Council's website.

Adult Care and Support’s Access and Assessment Service:
Referrals, Requests and Enquiries  Tel: 0300 1234 131

Adult Care and Support (ACS) has a single, countywide Access Service that deals with all referrals, requests, and enquiries. The vast majority of these are currently received by telephone.

A multi disciplinary team is there to help identify how enquiries can be resolved at the point of referral. This includes an initial stage of information gathering, and an assessment of needs and risk using the government’s Fair Access to Care Services eligibility criteria (see blue box to the right). In situations where referrals do not appear to meet eligibility (currently set at Critical and Substantial), the service will signpost to other community-based services, including the voluntary and independent sectors.

Once it is identified that a person requires a full assessment or onward referral to a specialist service or worker, the referral will be allocated to the appropriate fieldwork team working with older people, people with physical or learning disabilities, or sight/hearing loss.
More information can be found in ACS leaflets ‘Assessing your needs’ and ‘Self-directing your support’ (see page 10). You may also like to request “Looking for Social Care in Cornwall”, which is for people who are not eligible for local authority services, or who wish to pay for their own services. Copies of any leaflets can be obtained by calling 0300 1234 131.

Assessing Your Needs

If you require a face-to-face assessment, someone from ACS may visit you, usually at home or in hospital. When ACS does come out to meet with you and any family members or representatives you may wish to have present, they will discuss your situation, and work out with you what help would be appropriate. ACS again use the FACS eligibility criteria to assess people wishing to receive services, so that support is focused on those people in greatest need.

Should I Ask For An Assessment?

Adult Care and Support will assess your need for services if you are a carer, an older person, or an adult with:-

• A physical disability, or a long term illness
• A sight or hearing loss
• A learning disability

Fair Access to Care Services (FACS)

4 Bands: Critical, Substantial, Moderate, Low
5 Criteria:

• Autonomy and freedom to make choices
• Health and safety, including freedom from harm, abuse and neglect
• The ability to manage personal and other daily routines
• Involvement in family and wider community life
• Carer’s circumstances

You can ask a friend, relative or your GP to contact ACS on your behalf.. If you are in hospital, the nursing staff can arrange for ACS to contact you, either during your stay in hospital, or on your return home.

To contact the Adult Care and Support Access and
Assessment Service call: 0300 1234 131

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