Leeds Older People's Forum

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Some background

The work on SDS in Leeds started in January 08, with the Executive Board’s endorsement of the principles of ‘Putting People First’. This is the document which outlined the vision for the way adult social care services will develop
in the future.

Latest Update from Adult Social Care (December 2009)

Personal Budgets and Direct Payments in Leeds

You can now get more involved in choosing the type of social care support you want, so you have more control over your services and tailor them to suit your needs. This new system is known as 'self-directed support' - because you are directing how your own support is provided.

There are two systems which can help you do this – Personal Budgets and Direct Payments.

Direct Payments are available now. These are local council payments for people who have been assessed as needing social care support, and who would like to choose and pay for their own services instead of receiving them straight from the local council.

Personal Budgets will be introduced from early 2010, and are designed to help people take control of their entire social care budget, manage their own support and choose the services that suit them best - using the money from Adult Social Care more creatively. With personal budgets you can choose to have some services provided by Adult Social Care in addition to employing people directly. Right from the assessment stage, the focus is on enabling you to have the flexibility to live your life the way you want.

Personal budgets for social care will be available from early 2010 - further information can be found on Leeds City Council's website: www.leeds.gov.uk/personal_budgets

New website set up by a group of disabled volunteers:

www.freetoliveleeds.org

This website has been set up to help people managing their own support, either using direct payments or personal budgets. There's a forum where questions etc can be posted. The group gives free, informal advice to people about all kinds of social care related issues. They also run their own helpline.

These websites have an overview of personalisation, plus key policy documents and links.

Evaluation of the Individual Budgets pilot programme: final report, October 2008
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_089505

The Individual Budgets pilot programme was a cross-government initiative led by the Department of Health working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, and Communities and Local Government. The pilot was conducted over two years 2006-2007 involving 13 local authorities.

The report was written by a combined team from The University of York, Manchester University, LSE, University of Kent and Kings College London. They were collectively called The Individual Budgets Evaluation Network (IBSEN).

National Centre for Independent Living
www.ncil.org.uk

NCIL is a national support, advice and consultancy organisation that aims to enable disabled people to be equal citizens. The website is a resource on independent living, direct payments and individual budgets.

Leeds City Council, direct payments
www.leeds.gov.uk – search for “Direct payments” in the A-Z index

Direct payments are local council payments for people who have been assessed as needing help from social care and who would like to arrange and pay for their own care and support services instead of receiving them directly from the council.

Inclusion Glasgow
http://www.inclusion-glasgow.org.uk/aboutus.asp

This organisation has been one of the leading influences on the personalisation agenda, operating from an anti-institutional and service brokerage perspective. They support people in the Glasgow area to live independently and aim to give them as much power as possible in planning their lives.

Personalisation: a rough guide, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) October 2008
http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/reports/report20.asp

The story so far about the personalisation of adult social care services. It sets out SCIE’s understanding of personalisation at a very early stage of implementation, exploring what personalisation is, where the idea came from and placing the transformation of adult social care in the wider public service reform agenda.

DH Update & initial info on Personal health budgets, Oct 2008 (in Workstreams/personalisation)

self directed support...

Initial Information

What is self directed support?

If you work in Adult Social Care you have probably heard about SDS. It gives people much more control over their own support by changing the way in which assessments are made and support is provided.

In the SDS model, a customer completes a self-assessment questionnaire which indicates their level of need and their desired outcomes.

They will then receive a budget based on the needs and outcomes they have outlined in the questionnaire, and a support plan will be drawn up to show how this budget will be spent.

This enables people to choose the support which best suits their individual circumstances. It is designed to be more flexible than direct payments. Checks will be made to make sure the budget is being spent responsibly.

Where to find further information about personal budgets

Visit www.leeds.gov.uk/personal_budgets or www.dh.gov.uk

Download Putting People First from www.dg.gov.uk

Visit www.personalbudgetleeds.org - the website of Free to Live, the personal budgets peer support network in Leeds.

Members of the network, who all use personal budgets or direct payments, offer informal advice based on their own experiences or signpost people to further information

The website includes a discussion board and helpline.

Personalisation, Self-Directed Support and Individual Budgets

Individual Budgets and Personalisation may herald a significant change for Local Authorities, older people and the voluntary sector.

The following links may help to explain Individual Budgets and particularly, help to define some of the terminology used and the philosophy behind individual budgets.

If you would like more information about how the older people’s voluntary sector in Leeds is involved in Individual Budgets, please contact the Forum.

Glossary of terms
http://www.bettercaring.com/editorial/channel3.aspx?id=2206

Personalisation toolkit, CSIP May 2008
www.toolkit.personalisation.org.uk

An online resource to support councils to begin to plan and deliver the transformation of their social care systems. It will also be of interest to partner organisations.

Putting People First, December 2007
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081118

This sets out the government’s intention of large scale reform of adult social care to a more personalised system that supports choice, independence and dignity. A ministerial concordat or agreement across central and local government, it outlines the shared aims and values which will guide the changes.

In Control
www.in-control.org.uk

In Control is a partnership between families, individuals, services, local authorities, government and many other organisations. Their mission is to play a key role in creating a new system of social care, in which people will control their support, their money and their lives as valued citizens. Their website contains lots of information and tools, and sets out a new model for support.

Department of Health
www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Socialcarereform/Personalisation/index.htm

Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP)
http://networks.csip.org.uk/personalisaion/index.cfm