The Local Account is an important part of the Government’s plan to let people know about their local care and support services for adults and how well they are performing. It also gives us the opportunity to make more information available to residents on our successes, challenges and priorities.

Our Local Account so far

We have uploaded some of the sections of our Local Account for you to look at. You can view each section by video or you can download a text version. We are also looking at how we can incorporate signing onto these videos.

As soon as we finish each section we will upload the information under each of the headings below. Please tell us what you think so that we can make it better.

Introduction to the Local Account by Cllr William Wallace

You can download the text from this video here.

Introduction to Adult Social Care by Clare Steel

You can download the text from this video here.

Carers in Somerset

You can download the accompanying information sheet here.

The Council Budget for Adult Social Care
Our overview of spend and services in Somerset

Our overview of Adult Social Care spend and services in Somerset

The Council Performance for Adult Social Care

How well did we perform during 2013-14?

Your Stories – hear people tell their stories.

Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities Local Account 2014

Mental Health
Mental Health Local Account 2014

Who are Healthwatch?
Healthwatch Somerset is the independent local consumer champion for health and social care, representing the voice of the public. Introduced in each upper tier local authority area in April 2013, Healthwatch provides information to the public on health and social care services. It gives people a voice, listens to issues and concerns and raises these with commissioners and decision makers, particularly through its place on the Health and Wellbeing Board. The service is for people of all ages, including children.

What will happen next?

We will be uploading more sections of the local account for you. We will do this as soon as we have finished each one. Here are some of the other areas we will be sharing with you:

• Sensory Impairment – coming next
• Older People
• Drugs and Alcohol

We hope to use this as a tool for planning improvements, as a result of making information more accessible and more meaningful for Somerset’s communities.

We are using a National Framework called “Making it Real”  in our conversations with people about their experiences.

Making it Real highlights the issues that are most important to the quality of people’s lives, and publicly shares the progress being made.

Making it Real is built around “I Statements” . These express what people want to see and experience, and what they would expect to find if personalisation is really working.

How to get involved
We want people to tell us about their experience and what is important to them. To have your say, follow the link to the survey: http://www.somersetconsults.org.uk/consult.ti/intranetfeedback/answerQuestionnaire?qid=2534563

Here is a printable version of the Local Account questions

We also invite you to tell us what you think about our Personalised Care and Support Charter. This has been developed to set out our clear commitment to people to deliver person-centred care and support.

To have your say on the Personalised Care and Support Charter, open the Personalised Care Charter and Have Your Say by sending your answers to:

Email: socialcareaccount@somerset.gov.uk

Postal address:
The Local Account
Adult Social Care Commissioning Team
B2 East
County Hall
Taunton
Somerset
TA1 4DY

Here is some of the Feedback we have received so far.