Planning your Support

Once your care manager has completed the assessment, and you know how much money Manchester City Council can contribute to the cost of your support, you can begin to develop your support plan.

Your support plan is about ways to spend your individual budget, so that you can achieve the goals you will have discussed with your care manager during your assessment. If you need help writing your support plan you can ask family members, friends or neighbours to help you. We can also provide you with help from a broker in writing your support plan. A broker can be your care manager, or one of our staff from the Self Directed Support Team.

You may have to pay for the cost of a broker from the Self Directed Support Team, although the first hour will be free of charge. This is your chance to be really creative about what you want to do, and decide who can provide what you want. There are lots of services and opportunities available to you, and brokers will have ideas about how these can help you achieve your goals.

You can also look in our online service directory, MyManchesterServices, linked below.

You might want to: 

• employ a Personal Assistant, to help you take care of yourself and get out and about 
• buy a freezer and a microwave, to make sure that you eat and drink enough 
• buy a computer and broadband for online grocery shopping and banking 
• agree flexible times with your homecare providers so that you can get up and go to bed at times that fit in with your life 
• join a support group, or pay for someone to support you on holiday 
• sign up for voluntary work or courses to bring your work skills up to date 
• employ a personal assistant to support you to attend college 
• buy assistive technology to keep you safe in your home, such as mats to alert when someone is out of bed 
• take driving lessons to help you get out and about, or travel to work or college

There are many things that will help you improve your quality of life and regain your independence - if you think that something will help you meet your needs, ask your care manager.

Support Planning - points to remember

Manchester City Council will help you to develop your support plan and we must approve the plan before your individual budget can be paid. Anything you want to buy with your individual budget must help to meet the goals in your support plan, and must not be spent on anything illegal, or anything related to treatments which are the responsibility of the NHS. You cannot overspend your individual budget, but you can use your own money to top up your spending.