You can call us on 01324 506 070 outwith office hours.

You can also write to:

Home Care Manager
Carronbank House
Carronbank Crescent
Denny
FK6 6GA

Please call us on 01324 506 070.

Yes. We will ask you to sign a written agreement with us about your Personal Plan. This forms the contract for the care you will get. You can ask us to review your your Personal Plan at any time.

Yes. We will write this with you. It will set out what care you will get and you will keep a copy of your personal plan.

We may need to share this plan with other people or agencies who are involved in your care. We will always get your permission before we share your personal plan.

We will review your plan every six months or sooner if needed. You can ask to review it at any time.

You may have to pay for some services. If you do, we will tell you how much and how you can pay. If you, or your carer, would like your benefit entitlement checked, please call us on 01324 506 070.

No. Falkirk Council care staff cannot accept gifts from people who use our services. This rule also applies to any staff from private care providers that provide your help.

You should speak to your home care manager. You can call us on 01324 506 070.

Please contact your local Social Work office. We will prioritise your request for reassessment and get in touch with you to discuss your needs.

You must contact your home care manager so we can update our records.

Yes. You must call us to cancel your care, giving as much notice as you can.

If you don't cancel your care and are not at home when your home care worker visits, they will tell your home care manager that you’re not in.

We have a duty to check you’re safe and will take steps to find you. If we’re unable to find you after all steps have been taken, then we’ll have to gain entry to your property by way of a forced entry, involving the police. These types of emergencies are both time consuming and upsetting for everyone.

Yes. You must call us to cancel the care for the dates you will be away, giving as much notice as you can.

If you don't cancel your care and are not at home when your home care worker visits, they will tell your home care manager that you’re not in.

We have a duty to check you’re safe and will take steps to find you. If we’re unable to find you after all steps have been taken, then we’ll have to gain entry to your property by way of a forced entry, involving the police. These types of emergencies are both time consuming and upsetting for everyone.

If you wish to see your confidential records on your home care service, please ask your home care manager. We must make sure that any information we give you is in line with:

• Data Protection Act 1998 - The Act is there to protect the personal privacy and the rights of the person the information is about
• The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – The Act makes sure that people have the right to access information about them that is held by Scottish public authorities

We have a complaints procedure for you to follow. You can talk to us about your complaint or put it in writing. You also have the right to complain to the Care Inspectorate at any time.

When we agree your care package with you, we will agree what your home care worker will do when they visit.

This could include help with:

• Your personal care, such as getting washed and dressed
• Showering, baths, shaving and going to bed at night
• Preparing and cooking meals
• Some types of financial transactions
• Laundry
• Basic housework
• Assisting you to manage your medicines

Home care workers are not allowed to do things that might put their own or your health or safety at risk.

This includes:

• Using equipment that is faulty, or needs repaired
• Doing anything above arm's reach without using safe ladders or steps
• Moving heavy furniture
• Sitting out on window ledges to clean windows

They are also not allowed to do the following tasks:

• Gardening
• Decorating
• Shopping on your behalf
• Administer most types of medication
• Give you any help that is not written in your care plan

We will discuss this type of help with you about this when we create your care plan.

If you need help with any financial matters, your home care manager will tell you if we can help you with this. If we can help, we will write it in your care plan. You must agree to this help in writing.

They may be able to help you with your medication, but there are restrictions. If we are going to help you with your medication, we will write this in your care plan.

Home care workers are limited in how they can help you. They can only remind you to take any medication the pharmacist has given you in a monitored dosage system. They cannot give you medicines from original containers.

Some tasks can only be performed by trained health care professionals, such as injections. We have a strict medication policy that home care workers must follow.

Your home care worker must not:

• Fill dosage boxes with medication
• Take individual tablets out of original containers
• Pour and measure medicine in liquid form
• Buy or prompt you to buy over-the-counter medication
• Encourage you to take any medication that has not been prescribed to you

Your home care worker can, with your home care manager's permission:

• Collect prescriptions, but we will always encourage you to use the collection and delivery service most pharmacies provide
• Only prompt and remind you to take prescribed medication
• Put some types of eye and ear drops in for you, but you must have been prescribed these
• Apply creams, but these must be supplied by prescription

We will discuss times with you before we start your care service. These agreed times will be written in your care plan.

We can't absolutely guarantee a specific time, as there are many things that can hold your home care worker up. They may have to help another service user who has fallen or may have been delayed in traffic.

If your home care worker is off work for any reason, then a replacement home care worker will visit you as close to your usual time as possible. Our office staff will phone you to tell you what is happening. If we have not contacted you, please call us.

The times your home care worker arrives at your home can vary as there are many things that can hold them up. They may have to help another service user who has fallen or may have been delayed in traffic.

If we have not contacted you to let you know your home care worker is running late, please call us to find out how long they might be.

If your home care worker has not turned up, please call us or activate your MECS alarm if you have one.

Your home care worker should tell you that they are going on holiday. They should discuss with you what your needs might be during the time they are away. This is so we can arrange a replacement home care worker for you, if you want one.

We will try to send a home care worker you already know, but this is not always possible. It is our policy that no housework is carried out for the first two weeks when your normal home care worker is on holiday.

Home care workers can sometimes call in sick at very short notice. If you would like a replacement home care worker, then we will arrange this for you. We will try to send a home care worker you already know, but this is not always possible. We will ask the replacement home care worker to help you with the most urgent things such as personal care, medication prompting or preparing you a meal.

For help with things that are not so urgent such as laundry, we will try to provide help with this. This might be at a different time or day, when home care workers are available to visit to help you with this. It is our policy that no housework is carried out for the first two weeks when your normal home care worker is off sick.

All home care workers will wear a uniform and carry identity cards when carrying out your care. If you would like to check the identity of your home care worker, please contact us on 01324 506 070.

If your care is provided by a private care agency, their home care workers will wear a different uniform.

We will discuss this with you when we create your personal plan.

If you wish, you can use Self Directed Support to buy your own care or to choose a care agency or employ a personal care assistant of your choice.

If you have any care issues, please contact your home care manager.

For more information about Self Directed Support, please contact your local Social Work office.

You must sign the home care worker’s timesheet each week to confirm how much time they have spent with you. If the time your home care worker has recorded is not correct, please do not sign the timesheet and contact your home care manager.

You will be charged from the date the service starts. We will send you a bill each month. Your bill will explain the ways you can pay.

You may not have to pay if you are getting Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment. Please contact us for more information.

If you get meals from Meals on Wheels, a lunch club or day centre, you will be charged £3.40 for each meal. You will pay when these meals are delivered to you.

There is no standard charge for residential care, such as care homes. If you need residential care the amount you will have to pay will vary depending on where you receive care and your financial circumstances.

You will still have to pay if you temporarily stop using a service, or if the service is suspended temporarily. Charges will only stop if you have not received a service for four or more weeks in a row.

You can apply to reduce your charges if you think you are paying too much for your care services. To do this you will need to fill in an ‘Application for exemption of social care charges’ form. You can ask us to send you a form by calling 01324 590735.

You can also ask us to review your charges if, when we assessed you, we did not know some information or made a mistake in calculating your charges. If we agree this happened, we will backdate our new decision to the date of the original decision.

Please contact us as soon as possible if there has been a change in your circumstances. If we agree, our new decision on your charges will take effect on the date that your circumstances changed.

You can apply to our Charging Review Panel if you are struggling to pay. We will look at all hardship case individually.

If you need help with your laundry, we may be able to do your laundry. This will depend on whether you already have home care staff visiting you to do other things. If they are, they can do your laundry for you.

If you have difficulty with incontinence, or have certain medical conditions, you may be able to use our incontinence laundry service. This service supplies you with hospital sheets, flats sheets and pillowcases.

Our staff will collect your laundry once a week and deliver fresh bedding to you. They can only collect the bedding that we give you. They are not able to take your own items of clothing away to get washed. The incontinence laundry service is free.

You, or someone who cares for you, can ask us to assess you for this service. To do this, please contact your local district nurse at your GP surgery. If you are assessed as needing this service, your district nurse will tell us and we will arrange to set up the service with you.

One of our drivers will come to your house to collect your dirty laundry and deliver clean laundry to you. They will drive a Falkirk Council vehicle, have a uniform on and will show you identification. Our driver will take your laundry to NHS Forth Valley’s laundry service.

We will give you a supply of bags and ask you to put your dirty sheets in one each week. Our driver will take this bag away when they come to your house. They will bring clean sheets for you at the same time.

Please contact us as soon as possible if you don't need the laundry service on 01324 506 070. If you are unable to call, you can ask a relative, friend or carer to call for you.

If you don’t cancel your laundry day and are not at home when our driver calls, they will tell us that you’re not in.

We have a duty to check you’re safe and will take steps to find you. If we are unable to find you after all the steps have been taken, we'll have to gain entry to your property by way of a forced entry, involving the police. These types of emergencies are both time consuming and upsetting for everyone.

We have a complaints procedure for you to follow. You can talk to us about your complaint or put it in writing. You also have the right to complain to the Care Inspectorate at any time.

We may be able to help you with meals at home in one of these ways:

• We can help you prepare and cook meals at home
• We can deliver hot meals to your home if you are unable to cook for yourself

Our Meals on Wheels drivers will deliver the meals.

Meals are made in local schools throughout the Falkirk Council area.

Yes. We offer a three-weekly cycle of menus.

Yes. We try to meet all special dietary needs and offer diabetic and vegetarian menus. We will discuss your dietary needs when we are assessing you for this service.

Please contact us as soon as possible if you don't need the meals service on 01324 506 070. If you are unable to call, you can ask a relative, friend or carer to call for you.

We need to be told of the dates, preferably in advance, so that we don’t waste food or the driver’s time. If you don’t cancel your meals and are not at home when our driver calls, they will tell us that you are not in.

We have a duty to check you’re safe and will take steps to find you. If we are unable to find you after all the steps have been taken, we'll have to gain entry to your property by way of a forced entry, involving the police. These types of emergencies are both time consuming and upsetting for everyone.

We have a complaints procedure for you to follow. You can talk to us about your complaint or put it in writing. You also have the right to complain to the Care Inspectorate at any time.