How people access Adult Social Care.
Download (PDF 784.41 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch West Sussex undertook a listening exercise of people living in Crawley between May and August 2017 to find out what they would do if they or their family needed social care support to remain living in the community. The research was intended to provide evidence to West Sussex County Council who were developing a new way of delivering adult social care to enable people to live independently for longer, whilst addressing the challenges arising from many more people developing social care needs.
The report focused on a key theme of people's experience of the availability of information. It was found that the majority of people would seek information from three main sources, their GP Practice, the Internet and community voluntary support.
In GP practices people found that there was a wide variety in how and what information is available. Some practices had clearly set-out information and others have an overwhelming and confusing array of leaflets and posters. The West Sussex Connect to Services web site was found to be difficult to navigate and the information was often out of date. Finding information from local community resources was found to be both a useful and unhelpful service with problems of consistency and availability.
As a result of the investigation it was recommended to consider how to locate or link adult social care teams to the GP practices within the area. That local activity providers are supported to maintain their online records, to avoid the information becoming out-dated and that Connect to Support is fit for purpose to ensure local people are aware of what is available information is kept up-to-date.