Emergency support
Help for elderly or vulnerable people at risk in winter, contact our Adult Social Care team.
For urgent out of hours support, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on Tel: 01483 51789
Advice for friends, neighbours and families
Neighbours should check if curtains are drawn for too long, if lights are left on or deliveries stack up on doorsteps. These may be telltale signs that something is not right and should be reported. Family and friends should keep in regular contact with elderly and vulnerable people in bad weather to check how they are coping.
If people are concerned about elderly or vulnerable family members, friends or neighbours, they should contact our Adult Social Care team straight away.
We also ask that people help each other out in the event of snow or bad weather with shopping or clearing paths or driveways. Please do, however, make sure that you follow our recommendations on how to clear ice and snow from pavements and paths.
What we will do
If our services change due to bad weather, our staff will prioritise visits and rotas and will ring people if times change or we can't get to them.
If people already receive support from Adult Social Care, they need to tell their local team if they are planning to go into hospital. This is very important to help us easily locate people in a crisis or emergency situation.
Food supplies
We can arrange help with shopping or with delivering food supplies in snowy conditions. It is also advisable to keep stocks of dried milk and canned foods in the house during winter in case of a prolonged spell of bad weather.
Hospital and GP appointments
If people have planned hospital or GP appointments during bad weather, they should ring the hospital or doctors surgery and check if the appointment is still going ahead and if they can't get there, they should cancel their appointment. If people are considering cancelling any medical appointments we would recommend they speak to their GP and or specialist first.
Financial assistance
Surrey County Council is working with The Local Pension Service to offer benefit checks and support in making claims to the residents of Surrey who are aged 60 and over. If you are worrying about the cost of putting the heating on, find out about help available on Gov.uk: The Warm Home Discount Scheme (including links to the Cold weather payment and the Winter Fuel Payment) and Find energy grants and ways to improve your energy efficiency.