Reablement support

What is reablement?

Reablement is a particular type of care, which has a strong focus on helping an individual to regain skills, confidence and capabilities they have lost through poor health, disability, entering the care system following a crisis or having spent a considerable time in hospital or residential care. In particular this may be through the use of therapy and/or minor adaptations or assistive technologies.

Reablement support is about helping you to discover what you are capable of doing for yourself, and to give you confidence when moving around your home and with tasks such as washing, dressing and preparing meals. Staff will discuss and assess your needs to find out what you can do and what is causing difficulty. 

Reablement aims to: 

• prolong people’s ability to live at home
• remove or reduce the need for long term home care
• increase people’s independence, including through improving ability to perform activities of daily living
• increase people’s wellbeing, including motivation and mental wellbeing
• maximise the use of alternatives to formal care and support, e.g. equipment and assistive technology

It is a time-limited support service, usually of up to six weeks, with regular reviews throughout. The support provided should depend on your needs and the outcomes the support seeks to achieve.

Reablement services are provided by HomeFirst or the Independence at Home service. 

Charges for reablement

Reablement care is usually a free service for up to six weeks, whilst an individual is actively participating in the reablement programme.

If at any point a longer term care service is identified to better meet their needs, from the point that eligibility is determined the service will no longer be free and will be subject to a charge. 

Please visit our pages regarding how we calculate your what you may have to pay towards your care. 

When might reablement care be appropriate?

Reablement care services may be appropriate for people who:

• have had a period of illness or a stay in hospital
• are at risk of admission to hospital
• are at risk of admission to a residential care home
• have requested an assessment for a social care funded home care service
• are already in receipt of a social care service, for example home care or living in a residential care home

What happens at the end of a reablement period?

At the end of an agreed period, your ability to manage daily living tasks will be reviewed, and if necessary an assessment for ongoing care will be arranged.
If this assessment identifies the need for longer term support, appropriate steps can be taken to meet those needs. It is likely that people’s ongoing care will be provided by the reablement service initially, for a transition period of up to a week, which would be subject to a charge under Staffordshire County Councils Fees and Charges. 

Those people who require ongoing care will be transferred as soon as possible from the reablement service to an alternative provider in order to maintain reablement capacity.

For further information see our needs assessment information.

Further information

You can speak to your social care practitioner, if you have one, or health practitioner about this.