The Council has been exploring ways to use direct payments to empower residents to take charge of their own care, putting the person receiving the care in the best position to tailor the care to suit their specific wants and needs.
Direct payments are an easy and convenient way of receiving a personal budget for care. The money paid by the Council can then be spent on the services the person needs. The added control allows the person to choose who supports them, how they support them and when. People who use direct payments enjoy the choice that direct payments can bring, and frequently comment on how they have gained greater self-esteem, confidence, and control over how they live their lives.
This also allows people to utilise providers within the VCSE (Voluntary Community Social Enterprise) or micro-providers to best suit their individual needs.
The only exception of direct payment provision are long term residential care services.
The Council has explored the private, self-funders market, and estimated that there would be around 2000 additional service users that would qualify for financial assistance or a care account, but assessments are now not required due to the delays.
Our work on improving knowledge of paying for care, should support the market by allowing people to make informed decisions about their care, support the Care act need to encourage economic wellbeing and reduce debt across Adult Social Care charging.
The Council has a number of workstreams looking at self-service and paying for care.
These include:
- Self service financial assessment online
- web based ‘quick calculator’ tool for financial assessments
- e-learning training for social care staff about paying for care/confident conversations
- End to end financial pathway review (long term move of CERT to Azeus)
- Direct Payment infrastructure review
