For people needing social care support and their carers.
An appeal is a request for a review of a decision taken by local social care officers about your eligibility to receive funded social care, your assessments, your personal budget or your support plan. It is one of a range of options for dealing with concerns or complaints.
Our appeals process is a simple way for you to request a review of the decision(s) and to receive a quick response.
Any adult (including carers) who:
Appeals can be made on behalf of someone meeting the above criteria by anyone who:
The following issues can be dealt with through the appeals process.
You should direct queries or concerns relating to charges for your care as a result of financial assessment should to the council’s Financial Assessments and Benefits Team.
If you wish to raise another issue you have the right to pursue a complaint using our complaints procedure.
You will need to contact our customer fulfilment centre, your allocated social care worker or member of staff who has been working with you, to explain that you want to appeal against a decision.
You need to set out the issues you are appealing about. You must do this within 20 working days of being notified of the decision you are appealing against. You can do this in writing, by phone, face-to-face or by email. The contact details of the customer fulfilment centre are given at the bottom of this page.
If you are having difficulty meeting the 20 day timescale, you need to explain the reasons to the customer fulfilment centre, the social care worker, or the member of staff who has been working with you. This will be discussed with you and a decision taken about whether to extend the timescale. Appeals made after the deadline may be accepted at the council’s discretion.
Your appeal will be acknowledged within 48 hours.
The information you provide about your appeal will be passed to the Assistant Director who will be considering your appeal. You may be contacted for more information and/or to discuss a resolution.
The Assistant Director will consider all the information and make a decision.
This completes the first stage. We will tell you within 20 working days if your appeal has been successful or unsuccessful at this stage. If your appeal is not successful, you have the choice to take the appeal to the second stage. In the second stage the details of your appeal will be referred to the Executive Director of Adult Social Care for a final decision.
You will receive a letter from the Executive Director telling you the final decision of the council and the reasons why this decision was made. This will be within 20 working days from the time the appeal was referred to the Executive Director.
The second stage review by the Executive Director is the final part of the process. There is no further right to request a review of the decision once the second stage review has been completed.
This does not affect your rights to use the council’s complaints procedure.
If you feel that staff have acted inappropriately or have not followed due process in dealing with your appeal, then you can follow the council’s complaints procedure or please email the Customer Relations Team at socialcare.services@reading.gov.uk.