What Is Self Directed Support?

Self-Directed Support and Individual Budgets

Up until recently, most funding for people with a learning difficulty (and other people) has been as part of a block. For example, Adult Social Services say to a day centre that they will pay for 50 places. Everyone’s funding is lumped together and people have less choice over their support and what they do. People have no control over their own funding.

Choices have often been limited and care managers or providers (not the person) have had all the control.

Personalisation or Person-centred approaches mean that people are at the centre of their lives and have more control. Support is based on individual needs and wants. People are not lumped together. This is happening across the Country – the Government is really committed to make sure this happen for everyone. Attitudes have really changed over the past 10 years.

An  Individual (or Personalised) Budget means that the person has control over her/his own funding and can decide what type of support to spend that money on.

This means that people can choose who they want to support them and how.

Personal Budgets:

These are one part of Self-Directed Support. These are just from the money that Adult Social Services would normally pay for your support.

Adult Social Services assess you to see if you have a need for care and support (things that Adult Social Services pay for).

Having assessed what you need, Adult Social Services agree your indicative personal budget.

Direct Payments:

These are one way of managing your Personal Budget from Social Services.

Then Adult Social Services arrange to make a cash payment directly to you so you can pay for your own support. This is instead of a Care Manager managing your funding and support.

This money is paid into your own separate bank account.

You can have support to use a Direct Payment. You do not have to manage the money on your own without support.

This can only be used for things that Adult Social Services would usually pay for like:

Indirect Payments:

This is also just from the money that Adult Social Services would normally pay for your support.  With an Indirect Payment the cash does not come directly to you.

You just know how much money there is available to spend on your support – so the funding has been separated out and is not part of one big block. Your care manager still deals with the money but you tell her/him exactly what you want your funding to be spent on and what support you want.

You might choose to use the ‘Client Money Service’ to manage your Personal Budget. This is a big bank account that Kent Adult Social Services have set up.

Individual Budgets:

These go further than Direct or Indirect Payments and are made up from different funding sources.
The Government is piloting Individual Budgets at the moment. This means that they are testing it out in different areas to see how it works.

The income sources (places where the money comes from) included in this pilot are:

• Council-provided Social Care services for adults (Adult Social Services money).
• Supporting People funding
• Independent Living Fund
• Disabled Facilities Grant
• Integrated Community Equipment Services
• Access to Work

This means that instead of all those funding sources being separate, they are pooled together to make an individual budget for each person.

For more information check out the Government’s Individual Budgets Programme

Getting a Life Project:

Kent, Medway and the South East Transition to Adulthood Group form one of the Government’s demonstration sites. Skillnet Group is part of this project.

The project is about improving choices for young people with a learning disability coming through transition. It is a cross Government project. The aim is to bring funding and assessment together and make them less complicated for young people so that people can have better lives – and are especially supported to think about getting a job.

In Control:

This is a national programme and is a tool for Self-Directed Support. Some Council areas have been piloting this project.

This means trying it out. Kent County Council is using its own model of Self-Directed Support but is also registered with In Control.

• In Control starts with your Adult Services Department telling you how much your support costs and how much money you can have in your own budget. This is because there is only so much money to go round and the funding has to be fair for everyone’s needs.
• Then you decide what you want to do and how you want to be supported. You put together your person centred plan.
• Then you have the funding to pay for your own support.

There are different bands or levels of support.

In Control also looks at the support people get from your family and friends. This approach is about finding different ways of making sure you are part of your community and do not have to rely on specialist services.

The Skillnet Group has registered as a provider with In Control.

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