Devon County Council

This theme covers access to universal services such as transport, leisure and education as well as information, advice and advocacy. Our aim is that there is an offering available to all, irrespective of their eligibility for Social Care Funding.

Over the last 2 years Adult and Community Services have implemented a new care pathway focussing on 4 key business areas …

• Care Direct – Devon already has a dedicated Customer Services Centre offering advice, guidance and signposting to members of the public and incorporating a specialist ‘Care Direct’ service focussing on Social Care. Care Direct handled nearly 120,000 calls last financial year.
• Care Direct Plus – Adult and Community Services Care Direct Plus Centres provide further detailed telephone based assessment and signposting for those who require additional help and advice. The three centres handle around 800 incoming calls a week.
• Complex Care Teams – These joint health and social care teams focus on the assessment and management of complex and ongoing cases.
• Brokerage – These teams identify suitable service providers for people who are eligible for Social Care and have been assessed as requiring Devon County Council to commission appropriate services

Information is made available to the public via dedicated public information leaflets and the corporate website and can be accessed in a variety of alternative formats including other languages, large print, Braille, Audio and Easy Read.

We are embarking on a review of our Public Information Strategy looking to deliver universal information and advice to all Devon’s residents, both service users and self-funders.

The strategy will cover multiple channels i.e. paper, media, face to face and be driven by customer and service-user feedback. The findings of this work will identify further developments and will consider best practice developments from other authorities.

A Draft Public Facing On-line Care Directory - Statement of Requirements has tried to capture the views raised at recently held focus groups. Once finalised, this document will be used to help identify a suitable supplier to develop a new public facing on-line care directory

Public Information Strategy

Following in-depth consultation on the social care infofrmation we provide to the public, we have produced the Public Information Strategy to improve public access to information and advice. Read the full strategy here (62KB - pdf help)