Self Directed Support
Your Support, Your Way
What is Self Directed Support?
Richmond Council is committed to supporting all our residents to stay healthy and actively involved in community life for as long as possible. Where this is not possible, we want people to retain the best quality of life they can. We are working hard with our Voluntary Organisations and Health Services to make sure this happens.
Where people need help with ongoing personal care and support, we can help by working out with you what your individual needs are and calculating the approximate cost of meeting those needs. We will then give you your Personal Budget which you can spend on meeting your care and support needs in a way that is appropriate and agreed by the Council.
The idea behind giving every eligible person a Personal Budget instead of us providing you with services directly, is that we want you to be in the driving seat of how your support is arranged and to give you maximum control over how the money is spent.
At the heart of Self Directed Support is the recognition that you as the individual are often best placed to understand your specific needs. It involves a commitment from us to enable you to take as much control over your care and support needs as you feel comfortable with. It aims to offer you the optimum personalisation of your support and ultimately to support you to live the best life possible.
- Am I eligible to help from the Council?
- How does Self Directed Support work?
- What are the 7 steps of Self Directed Support?
- What is the Self Assessment Questionnaire?
- What is a Support Plan?
- Your Personal Budget
- Who can help me?
- Useful contacts
- Your Personal Budget
More information
For more information on Self Directed Support, download our information booklet: Self Directed Support: Your Support, Your Way
(pdf, 801KB)
The Department of Health's paper regarding transformation of Social Care: Putting People First(pdf, 394KB).
SDS documents
- Communications Strategy(pdf, 181KB)
- Programme Plan(pdf, 418KB)
- Evaluation - Jan 2010(pdf, 1622KB)
- End of Year Report 2008/2009(pdf, 122KB)
Contact SDS Programme Team
For more information about Self Directed Support please contact the Programme team:
Telephone: 020 8487 5085
Contact Adult and Community Services
For more information and advice on services in the community or to make a referral to Adult and Community Services, please contact us on
Telephone: 020 8891 7971
Fax: 020 8831 6237
Text: 07800 002439
Minicom: 020 8831 6258
Email: adultsocialservices@richmond.gov.uk
You can also contact us by using the Adult and Community Services enquiry form.
Our office hours are 9am - 5.15pm on Monday to Thursday and 9am - 5.00pm on Friday.
Emergency enquiries
For emergency queries outside of office hours contact the Adults Emergency Duty Team:
Telephone: 020 8744 2442
Minicom: 0845 600 7752
Type Talk: 1800 1 020 8744 9414
The service is available from 5pm to 8am, Monday to Friday and 24 hours on weekends and Bank Holidays.