A welfare service includes any service which provides support, assistance, advice or counselling to individuals with
particular needs, meeting the following conditions. The service must be a service that:
(a) is provided in the course of work to one or more persons aged 16 or over
(b) is delivered on behalf of an organisation
(c) requires training to be undertaken by the person delivering the service
(d) has a frequency and formality attached to the service, and
(e) either
(i) requires a contract to be agreed between the service provider and the recipient of the service prior to the service being carrried out, or
(ii) is personalised to an individual adults needs
In order to qualify as a welfare service, the service must include all the mandatory elements (a) to (d) above and, in addition, one or other of the elements in (e).
Particular Needs
Note that the service must be also provided to indviduals with
particular needs.
Particular needs are those over and above the general needs that any individual might have. For example, the need for regular meals is a general need (everyone needs this) but the need for assistance in preparing meals is a particular need (only some people with, e.g. a disability, need that assistance). Similar arguments apply to: (for example) personal care, washing, cleaning, access to shops, services and social contact. Everybody shares the need for these things, but some individuals (with particular needs) require specific assistance with them.
Particular needs - definition
Particular need is "a specific requirement an individual may have arising from either physical or mental illness, or physical or mental disability which may disadvantage that person when compared to the rest of society".
The following individuals may have particular needs:
- individuals with (temporary or permanent) physical capacity issues above and beyond the normal course of events, i.e not including ailments which affect everyone from time to time such as colds or flu;
- individuals with (temporary or permanent) mental disorder (i.e mental illness, learning disability or personality disorder)
- individuals with degenerative diseases;
- generally, individuals who suffer a prolonged impairment in doing ordinary tasks necessary to support their work or home life (rather like the DDA criteria)
- people with drug or acohol problems
The following indiviuals do not have particular needs by virtue of the following alone:
- people with debt problems
- people who do not have English as a first language;
- people in detention;
- the jobless, or otherwise economically deprived;
- people with literacy or numeracy problems (although these may be symptoms of a condition which does give rise to particular needs);
- friends or relatives of protected adults or individuals with particular neeeds