Appeals relating to adult social care

For people needing social care support and their carers.

What is an appeal?

An appeal is a request for a review of a decision taken by local social care officers about your eligibility to receive funded social care, your assessments, your personal budget or your support plan. It is one of a range of options for dealing with concerns or complaints.

Our appeals process is a simple way for you to request a review of the decision(s) and to receive a quick response.

Who can appeal?

Any adult (including carers) who:

• has been assessed as eligible to receive funded social care support
• has been assessed as not eligible to receive funded social care support
• has had a financial assessment for the provision of care

Can someone else appeal on my behalf?

Appeals can be made on behalf of someone meeting the above criteria by anyone who:

• is a person’s recognised representative, for example, a relative, a carer, an advocate or someone with power of attorney
• is making an appeal on a person’s behalf with their consent

What can I appeal about?

The following issues can be dealt with through the appeals process.

• Eligibility – the decision by the council about whether you are eligible to receive funded social care support and/ or what needs the council should meet
• Self-assessment – whether you feel the council has taken sufficient account of the information you provided
• Assessment – the council’s view of your needs
• Support planning – the level of choice you have about how the outcomes set out in your support plan are met
• Personal budget – the amount of money allocated to you to meet your outcomes

You should direct queries or concerns relating to charges for your care as a result of financial assessment should to the council’s Financial Assessments and Benefits Team.

If you wish to raise another issue you have the right to pursue a complaint using our complaints procedure.

How do I appeal?

You will need to contact our customer fulfilment centre, your allocated social care worker or member of staff who has been working with you, to explain that you want to appeal against a decision.

You need to set out the issues you are appealing about. You must do this within 20 working days of being notified of the decision you are appealing against. You can do this in writing, by phone, face-to-face or by email. The contact details of the customer fulfilment centre are given at the bottom of this page.

If you are having difficulty meeting the 20 day timescale, you need to explain the reasons to the customer fulfilment centre, the social care worker, or the member of staff who has been working with you. This will be discussed with you and a decision taken about whether to extend the timescale. Appeals made after the deadline may be accepted at the council’s discretion.

Your appeal will be acknowledged within 48 hours.

The information you provide about your appeal will be passed to the Assistant Director who will be considering your appeal. You may be contacted for more information and/or to discuss a resolution.

The Assistant Director will consider all the information and make a decision.

This completes the first stage. We will tell you within 20 working days if your appeal has been successful or unsuccessful at this stage. If your appeal is not successful, you have the choice to take the appeal to the second stage. In the second stage the details of your appeal will be referred to the Executive Director of Adult Social Care for a final decision.

You will receive a letter from the Executive Director telling you the final decision of the council and the reasons why this decision was made. This will be within 20 working days from the time the appeal was referred to the Executive Director.

The second stage review by the Executive Director is the final part of the process. There is no further right to request a review of the decision once the second stage review has been completed.

This does not affect your rights to use the council’s complaints procedure.

Contacting us

If you feel that staff have acted inappropriately or have not followed due process in dealing with your appeal, then you can follow the council’s complaints procedure or please email the Customer Relations Team at socialcare.services@reading.gov.uk.