Social care

Tower Hamlets Council's social care services provide care, support and assistance to a wide range of people who live in the borough. We have a legal responsibility to ensure the welfare and protection of children and vulnerable adults.

Over 1000 people are referred to social services each month. The services we provide range from giving advice and information through to long-term residential care. Services can be provided directly by the council, through voluntary and independent sector organisations or by working with health teams.

We provide support and care for the very young to the very old but most of the department's work is concentrated on helping the most dependent sections of the community. These include children, the elderly and people with physical or learning disabilities or mental health problems.

Services that we can provide include:

• home care
• meals on wheels
• day care
• support for people with mobility difficulties (parking and concessionary fares permits)
• aids and adaptations for people with disabilities
• short term breaks for children and adults
• residential care for children and adults
• family support including family centres
• adoption and fostering.

Access to these services usually follows an assessment of need. Following this assessment, a care plan is agreed, setting out what services are to be provided.

A number of changes are currently taking place to the way we provide services. Some of these changes are set out below.

• The living well comprehensive performance assessment group brings together partner agencies including health. This is an important step in improving services for local people. These groups, the local councils and the NHS are working more and more closely together.
• Developments include working towards providing a single assessment, putting money into one single budget to fund a wide range of services, having one organisation leading on buying health and social care services and merging together to provide a one stop package of services.
• The Primary Care Trust is one of our key partners in developing closer links between the council and the NHS. We also work closely with education to improve the services provided to children looked after and children with disabilities.

We are continuing to work closely with the independent and voluntary sector to improve the capacity of the local community to provide services that meet the needs of the people of Tower Hamlets.