Any child or young person who needs support in their community, or for overnight stays, needs to be assessed by the Social Care & Housing Department. After assessing their needs the Social Care & Housing Department draw up a CARE PLAN which sets out what services would be offered to the family. Families can then choose whether to use the services being offered, or ask for a Direct Payment. A Direct Payment means the family can buy the support they feel meets their child or young person’s needs - as long as it fulfils the care plan.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT DIRECT PAYMENTS?
Instead of using the services that are currently offered from Social Care & Housing, families can ask for a Direct Payment. With a Direct Payment a family can decide how they want to provide the support. They may know of someone they would like to pay to provide social opportunities for their child or young person. Families can choose to have a Direct Payment for all their support or for part of it. If they decide they want to use it for part of their support, Social Care & Housing can arrange services for the rest of it.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF A DIRECT PAYMENT?
More control
More choice
More flexibility
Better value for money
You directly hire and fire your own support workers, provide job descriptions and contracts, so that the support is more tailored to your family
WHAT CAN’T DIRECT PAYMENT PAY FOR?
A Direct Payment is NOT a benefit, and it doesn’t affect the money young people receive as their benefits either.
It should be spent on getting the support the child or young person has been assessed as needing.
The Direct Payment cannot be spent on things such as clothes or food.
Direct Payments are given to provide services to families cannot be used on equipment, although it is possible to have financial help towards equipment via a Direct Payment requested for this purpose. A Direct Payment cannot be used to pay a close relative to support a child or young person.
HOW CAN A FAMILY GET A DIRECT PAYMENT?
Parents or guardians of children 0-16 can ask for the money on behalf of their children. After the age of 16 the young person would have the responsibility for managing a Direct Payment. During a transition period, they would be assessed to see if they would be able and willing to do this, with support. If they do not have the capacity to manage a Direct Payment with support, the family could set up a Trust to manage payments on their behalf. This would not be called a Direct Payment, as the control and choice would be with the Trustees rather than with the young person. Families and young people are offered help and support to make these decisions.
HOW IS THE SUPPORT SET UP AND MANAGED?
A family can get help with setting up and managing their financial support. They can employ their own support workers or people they already know in their area. If they decide to employ their own support workers, they need to be thinking about:
What they want the support workers to do
What sort of people they want
How to find the right staff and make sure they do a good job
Who will support them if their usual support workers are sick or on holiday
How they will manage the payment of the workers and how they will keep good financial records.
DON’T WORRY….. the Rowan Organisation offers support to handle this! - see below.
WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?
Direct Payments can change just as the children or young person’s needs change. It may be that a family decides they don’t want to use Direct Payments any more, or that they want to use them in a different way. This can happen.
The Social Care & Housing Department will want to check whether the child or young person’s needs have changed. All children and young people will have regular reviews of their services – whether they use the Department’s services or Direct Payments. Reviews make sure that the child or young person is receiving the services the Care Plan says they need. Sometimes, through reviews, the Care Plan may change if the needs have changed. This will mean that the payments will also alter to reflect this change. The family can let the Department know of any changes – they do not have to wait for a review.
WHERE CAN I GET HELP WITH DIRECT PAYMENTS?
Pembrokeshire County Council has employed the ROWAN ORGANISATION to help families who decide they would like to work with Direct Payments. Rowan offers support with advertising, interviewing and general recruitment of staff to support your children or young people. They will also help with financial arrangements – payroll, tax, national insurance etc for families who employ staff in this way. If you would like more details you should contact: Linda Hackett on 01437 776590.