Adults with Physical and Sensory Disabilities

These seek to ensure the delivery of flexible, timely, fair and seamless services to meet the needs of disabled people in a way that enhances their quality of life and sustains their independence in their community.

One of the key ways of achieving this is through the effective application of the Unified Assessment Process and Fair Access to Care guidance. This puts the individual and sustaining their independence at the heart of the assessment process. The Direct Payments Scheme empowers individuals to make their own choices of how and when the care arrangements to meet their assessed needs are delivered.

Over recent years, the Welsh Government has introduced a number of other initiatives to progress their approach:

• Guidance was issued to local authorities in 2001 on identifying, assessing and providing services for the 40 people or so per 100,000 population who are deaf blind; and deafblind practice guidance "Moving Forward: Services to Deafblind People" was also issued in November 2008.
• Using the powers in the Care Standards Act 2000, regulatory and National Minimum Standards regimes have been introduced in a number of service areas, for example, care homes and domiciliary care.

The importance of ensuring that appropriate assistance is also available to family members and others who support people with physical and sensory disabilities has also been recognised by the Welsh Government. The Carers Strategy sets out the approach to meet the needs of such family members and others with a caring role.