You'll need to write a support plan once Health and Adult Services assess and allocate you an indicative personal budget. It tells us what changes you want to make in your life and how you'll make them.

Writing your support plan

Once you know how much money you'll have in your personal budget, you can develop a support plan. This sets out how you'll spend the money you have to buy the support you need.

We can arrange to help you complete your support plan, or you can complete it yourself if you prefer.

We can provide you with materials designed to help you develop your plan, and provide guidance throughout the entire process.

Your support plan should set out how the services are going to meet your needs and outcomes, identified in your assessment. Once you complete your plan, your assessing officer must see and agree it with you.

Questions you need to answer

The support plan can be as detailed or as brief as you like, but for us to agree it, it must answer these questions:

1. What's important to you about your health and your life in general?
2. What's working? What's not working?
3. Things you want to change (what would make a real difference)?
4. Where you need support and the outcomes you want to achieve?
5. How do you plan to manage your support (for example, Direct Payment, Individual Service Fund)?
6. How do you wish to spend your budget?
7. How will you stay in control?

Arranging your support

Your support plan must show how you'll arrange your support, as well as who provides that support.

There are different ways to organise your support. You can:

• organise it yourself (or with the help of a family member or friend)
• ask us to organise it for you
• ask an organisation to help
• ask a service provider to organise it for you
• a combination of the various ways described above.

You may want to think about the support you need and who can best meet those needs. You may need support such as housework, shopping or personal care, or help to attend appointments or get out and about.

Agreeing your support plan

Once you complete your support plan, your assessing officer will need to agree to it before you can start receiving your personal budget.

Your assessing officer will be looking for many different things before agreeing it, including:

• it keeps you healthy, safe and well
• it meets the needs and outcomes identified in the assessment
• it's within your allocated personal budget
• it's being responsibly managed
• managing potential risks, so you are aware of any implications
• the decisions are your own (if other people helped you complete it).

If your support plan isn't agreed

If we don't agree your support plan, we'll tell you as soon as possible why we can't sign it off.

We'll set out what needs to change so we can agree it.

If you're unhappy with the decision or the changes we request, you can ask to meet with all key staff to discuss further.

Our aim at these meetings would be to find a solution that will meet your needs as well as the address the Royal Borough's concerns.

Risk management

You can also ask the Risk Management Panel to consider the support plan, where there may be significant risks. At the meeting, they'll consider how great the risk and whether you can safely manage this.

For further information about the Risk Management Panel, contact Adult Social Care.