Care and Support Plan

Once you have had an assessment and the eligibility criteria has been completed, which identifies whether you have eligible care and support needs under the Care Act {2014) Kent County Council will set out how it will meet your eligible needs in a Care and Support Plan. Should you not have eligible needs you may still be supported via information and advice.

Your support plan will include:

• how having support will help you achieve your plans and outcomes
• how having support will help you be as independent as possible
• how having support will help you keep safe, healthy and well
• any help you need to organise your support
• what you will spend the money on

A social care practitioner will meet with you to help you with your plan. You can also ask a friend, family member or a trustee to help you as well. The final amount of money is only confirmed when your support plan is agreed. This is called your personal budget.  

The budget allocated is an amount sufficient to meet the person’s assessed eligible care and support needs. The budget is broken down into how much the council will pay and how much the person will pay, based on their financial assessment. This is called the estimated Personal Budget. The estimated budget is used to plan and agree outcomes that meet the persons care and support needs. The Personal Budget is agreed at the end of this process. A social worker will work with the person to agree the Personal Budget. In most cases this can then be managed by a Direct Payment.

We will arrange review meetings, initially after the start of support within 6 – 8 weeks and then annually with you to look at your care and support plan to see if the support you are receiving is still helping you to achieve your outcomes. Reviewing your care helps to prevent problems before they occur by checking that the plan is working well in meeting your needs and that it enables you to continue to do the things you can do for yourself. A review will also help to find out things that are important to you and try to seek ways to help you achieve them.