Health Centres & Charities in the UK in Cornwall in Devon in Powys in Somerset in Tyne and Wear in West Sussex

In this section:

Direct Payments and Personal Budgets

Putting People First

Personalisation

Introduction of Personal Budgets Discussed

Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

 

Direct Payments and Personal Budgets

Personal Budgets have been introduced to give you choice and control over your care and support, by letting you know exactly what different options cost. You can have more control over your care and support by receiving a Direct Payment from your local authority.

A Direct Payment is where the Personal Budget is paid directly to you. Some people may use their money to employ a personal assistant to help with everyday tasks such as washing and getting dressed. Others may choose to use the money to buy support or services from organisations or individuals. You may also want to spend your money on transport or local services such as a day centre.

You could choose to have a Direct Payment or you may want to receive more traditional social care services (like day care), or a combination of both. The important thing is that you decide what is best for you.

Personal Budgets

Personal Budgets is money that is allocated by your local authority to you. This money can be used to arrange your own care and support, after your assessment or your review. The idea of a Personal Budget is to make you aware of the value of your care and support. Your council will work with you and offer you the opportunity to make choices about how your care and support is provided, or you can even take total control.

A Personal Budget will be available to people who, following an assessment of their needs and financial position, are eligible for support and assistance. You can discuss this with your local authority at the time.

It is your choice about how you spend the money but your Personal Budget must be spent on meeting the needs and achieving the objectives (your ‘outcomes’) that were agreed in your support plan. Your Personal Budget cannot be spent on anything that is illegal or would endanger you or another person. Some people may use their money to employ a personal assistant to help with everyday tasks such as washing and getting dressed. Others may choose to use the money to buy support, or services from organisations or individuals. You may also want to spend your money on transport or local services such as a day centre.We will give you help to complete a plan and understand what is appropriate to meet your needs.

Direct Payments

Most people who have been assessed as needing a social care service and have capital and / or savings of less than £23,250 (excluding the home you live in). This includes people with:

• physical or sensory impairment,
• learning difficulties,
• mental health problems,
• a long term illness
• or those who need help because of the effects of growing older.
• You can also receive Direct Payments if you are a carer who has been assessed as needing support in your own right,
• or a parent of a disabled child for the services that support you in bringing up your child.

You can ask for Direct Payments if you wish to be in control of the services you need, and you are able to arrange and manage these services yourself or with help. You do not have to be able to do everything yourself. As long as you stay in charge of what happens, you can have as much help as you need to manage Direct Payments. Specialist staff are available to provide information, advice and support. To find out more detailed information about Personal Budgets or Direct Payments please contact your local authority.

 

Putting People First

Putting People First (PPF) is a national programme to improve people’s experience of adult social care. Launched in 2007, PPF is a commitment to make sure anyone who needs care and support can exercise choice and control to live their lives as they want. PPF puts people at the heart of the decision-making process. It enables them to identify their needs and make choices about their support. It’s all about delivering high quailty services tailored to individuals’ wishes, and ensuring better health and well being for everyone, including families and carers.

The four key components

The Putting People First initiative is made up of four key components.

These are:

• Universal services: ensuring that anyone requires care and support can find the services they need in ther community
• Preventative services: helping people to maintain their health and well being for longer
• Choice and control: giving people as much control as they want over decisions which affect their care
• Building social capital: recognising that individuals can receive care and support from their friends, families neighbours and community groups

These four interdependent themes need to be in place to support the transformation of social care in England.

PPF proposes that all local authorities move to a system of Personal Budgets for anyone who is eligible for support. Through this system, PPF aims to help individuals create bespoke care services, enabling them to receive care and support at the right time. It also seeks to reduce the pressure on local authorities by investing money in prevention, rather than offering care when people’s needs are highest.

Delivered by partners from central and local government and across the sector, PPF is a unique programme whose ultimate goal is the transformation of adult social care. It will enable close collaboration between the professional leadership, providers, regulators and service users. Together, these key stakeholders will work to ensure better health and wellbeing for all individuals, families and carers who require help and support.

Personalisation

Across Government, the shared ambition is to put people first through a radical reform of public services.  It will mean that people are able to live their own lives as they wish; confident that services are of high quality, are safe and promote their own individual needs for independence, well-being, and dignity.

This holistic approach is set out in ‘Putting people first: a shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care’, the ministerial concordat launched on 10 December 2007.

Personalisation of Social Care Services

Personalisation, including a strategic shift towards early intervention and prevention, will be the cornerstone of public services. This means that every person who receives support, whether provided by statutory services or funded by themselves, will have choice and control over the shape of that support in all care settings.

The work on direct payments and individual budgets, alongside that of In Control, are crucial to delivering greater personalisation, choice and improved quality. They are not separate initiatives or fleeting experiments, but fundamental components of a future social care system.

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©Department of Health

 

Personal budgets to be Introduced

Source : Press Association

Published on 16 November 2010 

Around a million older and disabled people will be put in charge of their own social care, it has been revealed. Care Services Minister Paul Burstow revealed that it is hoped ‘personal budgets’ will become a reality for everyone entitled to support by 2013.

Under the changes, the recipients of the money will be given the power to choose how to spend it. People will receive anything from a few hundred pounds up to tens of thousands when the plans come into effect. Even though the idea was first mooted in 1996, only a quarter of the one million eligible people currently have personalised budgets. Mr Burstow, a Liberal Democrat, said the move supported the coalition Government’s vision of ‘the Big Society’:

‘Personal budgets can make an incredible difference to people’s lives. They give people choice, control and independence.’

‘They look to people, not the state, to shape services, and improve outcomes, making a reality of the Big Society. I want councils to provide everyone eligible with a personal budget by 2013.’

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, said: ‘The personalisation of care budgets is a welcome step forward in allowing greater choice to those older people able to manage their own care.’

‘However, the heavy emphasis in the report on moving people onto receiving direct cash payments to pay for care concerns us as many older people have said that they don’t necessarily want to have to become employers of their carers or to have to shop around for provision.’

Our concerns

Michelle Mitchell continued: ‘Many older people begin to need care following a major health crisis such as a stroke and then need to be on a managed care pathway towards reablement. Only after their needs have stabilised would it be appropriate for a personal budget to be considered, but even then their needs must be kept under constant review. Appropriate levels of support must also be provided to help older people to make decisions and manage their care effectively.’

Age UK is also concerned that more vulnerable older people may be put at risk. Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, commented: ‘We are also concerned about the light touch approach to safeguarding reflected in the paper. Greater personalisation of care and direct cash payments bring greater risks in terms of safeguarding older people from abuse and we are not convinced by the approach taken in the report.

£400 million for carers to take breaks.

Mr Burstow also announced that the Government was to spend £400 million over the next four years to pay for carers to take breaks - a key Lib Dem manifesto pledge.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, said: ‘’We greatly welcome the increased budget available for respite care. Carers often make great personal and financial sacrifices to care for their loved ones and as a result save the economy an estimated £87 billion a year.

‘No matter how much someone loves the person they are caring for, it can be a physically and emotionally draining round the clock task. Having improved access to respite care would help ensure that carers are able to carry on caring for the long term.’ The issues of long-term funding are yet to be resolved. The entitlement to personal budgets was set out in the Government’s proposal, ‘A Vision for Adult Social Care’, published today (16.11.2010).

The document does not address the highly contentious issue of long-term funding, however, which is subject to an independent commission review expected to report next summer. The head of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said the long-term funding situation needed ‘resolution’. ‘We feel that we need a resolution to the long-term position, because everyone agrees that the present system is not sustainable,’ Richard Jones said. He added that the current system was increasingly becoming a ‘safety net’ for those with the greatest needs. ‘We need to find a way of levering more resource into the care and support system given the demographics and the challenges we are aware of,’ he said.

© Press Association, 2010  (See Age UK's website)

 

Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

From October 2010 the Local Government Ombudsman can consider complaints from people who arrange and fund their own adult social care. This is in addition to complaints about care arranged and funded by local authorities, which the LGO has dealt with for more than 35 years.

The LGO’s new role includes those who ‘self-fund’ from their own resources or have a personalised budget. It will ensure that everyone has access to the same Independent Ombudsman service regardless of how the care service is funded. In most cases we will only consider a complaint once the care provider has been given a reasonable opportunity to deal with the situation. It is a free service. Our job is to investigate complaints in a fair and independent way. We do not take sides and do not champion complaints.

We are independent of politicians, local authorities, government departments, advocacy and campaigning groups, the care industry, and the Care Quality Commission. We are not a regulator and do not inspect care providers.

 

The LGO and the Care Quality Commission

We are fully independent of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We deal with individual injustices that people have suffered and CQC will refer all such complaints to us.

CQC deals with complaints about registered services as a whole and does not consider individual matters. We can share information with CQC but only when we feel it is appropriate.

CQC will redirect individual complaints to us, and we will inform CQC about outcomes that point at regulatory failures.

Advice Line: 0300 061 0614  |  www.lgo.org.uk