The council's Adult Social Services can provide help for people with disabilities, loss of sight or hearing.
Introducing RADAR (The Royal Association for disability Rights)
Radar are working for the rights and equality of people in the UK with disabilities, regardless of age or impairment. Radar believes that everyone who experiences ill-health, injury or disability should have the same freedom and independence as other people. An important part of the freedom is having the confidence to go out knowing that public toilets will be available, accessible and will meet your needs. You can find out more from the RADAR Website.
Social Services may be able to help you if you have a disability, such as problems with mobility, hearing or sight loss. We can advise you about who to contact for financial help. And we can put you in touch with voluntary organisations who have specialist knowledge to share.
We may also be able to provide practical help with aids and adaptations for your home or offer day or respite care in some circumstances.
Adult Social Services is changing - personalisation is about you being in control of the support you need and making sure that services are more personalised to your specific needs and individual circumstances. You can ask for help to be able to do this.
You should contact the council if you think that you have a disability and ask us to arrange for an assessment of your needs. We can tell you what services are available to you, contact us on 01724 298000.
What is registration?
If you choose to register with social services you may be entitled to more help or services. Registration can be complicated because it depends on legal definitions of disability. We will help you with this if you wish to apply.
What are the advantages of registration?
The council is required by law to keep registers of people with disabilities in the area. The primary Act of Parliament, which set this up was the National Assistance Act 1948. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 and the new Disability Discrimination Act 1995 have helped define what is meant by the term 'disability'.
The legal language can be rather difficult to follow (more details can be found on our legislation and definitions page, but in general terms a disability is seen as something that is severe enough to prevent a person being able to live a normal life without considerable assistance. Naturally you then have to define what you mean by 'normal life' and 'considerable assistance' and it gets very complicated. Social services can give you advice and assistance to understand what this may mean for you.
You do not have to be registered as a person with a disability to receive help from social services. Your needs can be assessed and assistance provided without registration if that is what you want.
The main advantage to you is that registration can open the door to various services and concessions over and above those provided by social services. These are slightly different for people with different disabilities. To find out more information about these differences please see the list below.
The other advantage is that it helps social services to gather information about the needs of people in our area and to plan for services to meet those needs.
How does it work?
Registration is undertaken by officers from your local care management team. They will see you privately at home if you wish and go through some questions with you. This allows them to advise you about whether you meet the criteria for registration as having a 'permanent and substantial' disability. They can then tell you about the various services and concessions that may be available to you.
Online registration form
The information contained in these pages is a brief introduction to registration, concessions and services for people with physical disabilities. More detailed information is available from the following organisations:
More information
Information on other services available can be accessed via the adult social care directory.
Royal Association for Disability Rights