Direct payments allow disabled people and/or their carers to purchase their own social services. This is a good option for some people, but involves the disabled person or carer becoming responsible for things like tax, National Insurance and sick pay, meaning that there are many people for whom direct payments will never be suitable. Direct payments do not give local authorities an excuse not to come up with appropriate services to people who are in need.
In Croydon, direct payments are available to adults with physical, sensory and learning disabilities, people with mental health problems, 16 and 17 year olds, carers of disabled children and carers in receipt of caring services. Personal care, domiciliary support, respite and services assessed as needed are all covered by this scheme. Croydon are also considering user controlled trusts to allow third party arrangements for people who are less able to manage their own financial affairs to be able to take up direct payments.
The social services department maintains a list of people seeking employment as providers of support under this scheme. Direct payments are on an hourly rate. People with high support needs can be offered direct payments equal to the value of the care package they would have been offered by a care manager.
Croydon is also planning a pilot of direct payments for a limited range of equipment. Direct payments will give an opportunity for the exact equipment a user prefers to be purchased. If this is something more expensive than the council can provide, the user can then top up the money from his or her own funds if he or she wishes.
Case study
Croydon council currently provides direct payments for Mr S, a deafblind man who uses hands on sign language, to purchase communicator-guide services. The advantage of this for Mr S is that he is not tied to a particular number of hours of support per week, but can buy in communicator-guide support according to what activities he is undertaking on a particular day.
The rules for direct payments state that recipients cannot normally employ someone who lives in the same household as they do. However, there can be an exception to this if, for cultural reasons, it is necessary to employ someone from the same background or cultural group as the recipient in order to provide the service in a culturally appropriate way. The social worker and Direct Payments Plan Manager at Croydon took the view that Deaf people who use British Sign Language have a distinctive cultural identity. They therefore agreed that Mr S could employ someone who lives with him, and is also a British Sign Language user, to provide communicator guide services. Mr S reports that his quality of life has improved significantly as a result of being able to buy in support rather than rely on friends to volunteer.
