Consultation findings and report
From June to November 2007, Sense’s Deafblind Direct project consulted deafblind people and families on their experiences of direct payments. Respondents included individuals who use direct payments and those who had thought about using them. The findings have now been brought together in the Deafblind Direct Consultation Report.
The report presents strong evidence and recommendations for action to be taken by Government, local authorities and others, to ensure that direct payments guidance is correctly implemented for deafblind people and families. The key findings include:
- A quarter of respondents said they had no choice to receive a service from the council instead of receiving direct payments.
- The hourly rate of direct payments given is often insufficient to pay specialist staff with the skills to work with deafblind people.
- There is a shortage of appropriate staff to hire through direct payments.
- Only a third of respondents first heard about direct payments from their local authority when local authorities have a duty to tell individuals who are eligible about direct payments.
- Over 75% of respondents’ comments on information on direct payments were negative and in some cases, information was not given in the format needed, such as braille.
- Some respondents were unclear on what they could spend direct payments on and the procedures they should follow.
Here you can download the full report, as well as summary of the report.
Download the full report:
Download the summary of the report:
Alternatively email campaign.info@sense.org.uk for copies of the documents.
