Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Social Care Direct

Social Care Direct can assist you to find information and advice to help you live as independently as you can. If your needs are urgent you should telephone Social Care Direct immediately on: 03000 267 979.

Contact Social Care Direct by any of the methods on this page.

Opening hours

Social Care Direct is open from 8.30am until 5.00pm, Monday to Thursday and from 8.30am until 4.30pm on Friday.

In an emergency situation, a duty officer is available outside of normal office hours on the telephone number listed on this page. If faxing or emailing outside of normal working office hours, please be aware that these enquiries will be dealt with on the next working day.

What happens when you contact Social Care Direct

When you Contact Social Care Direct, you will speak to a trained contact officer. They will ask you questions about your situation. We will decide whether we are able to help you. For further information on this see our Get your care needs assessed page.

If we are unable to help you we will advise you if there are other sources of help available.

Contact Social Care Direct

Email scd@durham.gov.uk
Telephone 03000 267 979

Offsite links

Our regulator: The Care Quality Commission