Community Support & Education Scrutiny Committee

ITEM 8

BOROUGH OF POOLE

COMMUNITY SUPPORT & EDUCATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

16TH SEPTEMBER 2004

REPORT OF HEAD OF ADULT SOCIAL SERVICES (COMMISSIONING)

DIRECT PAYMENTS

1.PURPOSE OF REPORT

To advise Members on the actions being undertaken to increase the number of people receiving Direct Payments.

2.BACKGROUND

2.1The Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996 gave Local Authority Social Services the power to make cash payments to individuals to enable them to arrange, purchase, and manage the community care services which they had been assessed as needing.

2.2The aim of Direct Payments is to increase service users' independence by giving them more control over the way community care services they receive are delivered.

2.3The Act confirms the principles of independence, choice, and flexibility, as paramount in the way individuals' needs are met. These monthly cash payments help people who want to manage their own support to improve their quality of life. They enable people to employ personal assistants or purchase services that the Council would otherwise provide directly, and give them an opportunity to be fully involved in family life and engage in work, education and leisure.

2.4The Government is concerned to increase the number of people who receive Direct Payments and to ensure that people from all client groups have access to the choice that Direct Payments brings.

2.5The Government is monitoring local councils' progress in achieving this goal through a new performance indicator (PAF C51 KT BVPI 201).

3.WHO CAN BE CONSIDERED FOR A DIRECT PAYMENT?

Disabled People aged 16 and over;
Those with parental responsibilities for disabled children;
Carers aged 16 and over in place of carers' services;

3.1The term "disabled" includes people with any kind of impairment: for example, those with a physical or sensory impairment, learning disability, and people's impairment arising through illness.

3.2Payments may only be made if the person agrees and is judged to be capable of managing the payments. All service users continue to have a choice of whether to receive services directly.

4.WHAT CAN DIRECT PAYMENTS BE USED FOR?

Direct Payments can be used to purchase services which the person has been assessed as eligible to receive. People can receive a direct payment for:

Personal assistance at home or in the community;
Short term breaks;
Day services;

5.ADVOCACY AND SUPPORT ARRANGEMENTS

Poole Rights Organisation on Disability (PRO Dis) provides an independent living coordinator who ensures advocacy, advice and support is available for people who are considering Direct Payments or who are already in receipt of Direct Payments.

6.MONITORING OF DIRECT PAYMENTS

6.1The current rate per hour for Direct Payments is £10.

6.2The monitoring of the direct payment is the direct responsibility of the service user, Adult Social Services Commissioning Finance Team and the allocated care manager.

6.3A separate bank account must be set up to receive the Direct Payment, and a letter of agreement is signed between the Unit and the Service User. Each recipient of direct payments must provide the Unit Finance Team with monthly returns indicating how their direct payments have been spent. The purpose of this return is to ensure that the recipient is receiving the payments on a regular basis while at the same time ensuring that the monies are being spent on the service as agreed.

7.NUMBERS OF DIRECT PAYMENTS USERS

7.1At the present time the number of Direct Payments users is: 27

22 aged 18 - 64 years;
1 aged 65-74 years;
2 aged 75 - 84 years;
2 aged 84 plus.

8ACTION PLAN

8.1Adult Social Services, in partnership with Pro-Disability aim to increase the numbers of people receiving Direct Payments and to raise the profile of Direct Payments through the following action:

A Direct Payments Local Implementation Group has been established, including involvement by service users. This Group is deciding how best to publicise and encourage the uptake of Direct Payments;
The Fair Access to Care Policy expects staff, following assessment, to offer Direct Payments;
A question to prompt the offer and monitor this practice is included in the current assessment documents;
New Direct Payments training has been delivered to staff and managers;
We will be focusing especially on Direct Payments for day opportunities in the next number of months;
Poole Rights Organisation on Disability has been awarded £160,000 by the Department of Health from the Direct Payments Development Fund. The award will run from October 2004 until April 2006. The grant will allow PRO Disability to help in the uptake of Direct Payments through the creation of the following new posts and services :

A capacity improvement and innovation officer whose job is to increase the number of direct payments clients by establishing new, attractive, and innovative ways, of meeting eligible needs -
A finance support services development officer who will be responsible for establishing a finance support service, eg: a payroll system for direct payments recipients;
A personal assistant recruitment development officer to establish and operate a service to maintain a local register of available personal assistants.

9.PERFORMANCE TARGETS

9.1The Adult Social Services target is an increase to 45 clients receiving Direct Payments by end of 2004/05 and 130 clients by end of 2005/06. We are monitoring this performance indicator on a monthly basis.

JOHN DERMODY

Head of Adult Social Services (Commissioning)

25th August 2004