Health and Social Care Connect is Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) first point of contact for people to ask for advice or request support, or for agencies to ask for advice or request support on behalf of someone. Health and Social Care Connect, launched in 2022, provides:

• improved ways to contact us and ask for advice
• improved access to information and signposting to other supports and
• improved ways to ask for an assessment of social care needs if required.

We’re always working to improve how we do things, and a recent change we’ve been working on is to improve the online form you use to contact us for advice about an adult or older person. We would encourage people to use this form if they’re able to rather than phoning the service, as this can be processed more quickly.

The new online form, called a Support Enquiry/Referral, uses an ‘asset-based approach’ to the questions. This means that we will look at what your strengths are and what support you have around you, as well as what your aims and goals are, rather than just looking at what you can’t do at the moment. We’ll ask you some questions about what you can do in a typical week, and this will help us identify the advice you need and if you might benefit from further discussion with us about your support needs. These questions cover:

• Home and living
• Eating healthy and safely
• Personal care
• Social relationships and activities
• Work, training, education and volunteering
• Caring for others and
• Staying safe.

Once you’ve answered these questions, the online form will tell you whether you would benefit from an assessment from us or whether there may be other supports or organisations that may be able to provide the advice and any support you may need. You will then have the chance to continue the form by completing a referral to ask for an assessment.

The staff working at Health and Social Care Connect are highly skilled and they’ll review your answers, and we may, sometimes, have to contact you for more information to find out what matters to you. You may or may not need input from social work and health services. We may recommend other people, places or services who can support and assist you. An example of the advice and support you may need includes linking you to supports in your community, steps you can take yourself to improve and maintain your independence and wellbeing, healthcare, equipment, help in your home or residential care, support for carers and support for children and families.

Lynsey Smith, Head of Service, Health and Social Care Connect, said, “The team have worked hard to develop an improved online form that makes it easier for people to tell us what they can do and what they are having issues with. The referral form helps us quickly identify the advice and need for additional assessment to help people live as independent a life as they can. The new online form went live in August and we’ll continue to review how well it is working.”

You can find the Support Enquiry form on our website, and the form should be used by people looking for support or advice for themselves or someone else and by agencies and professionals requesting support on behalf of someone.