Direct Payments give you a choice about how community care services are arranged.
You can ask the council to arrange services for you or you can ask for the money to arrange your own services.
Getting the money to arrange your own services is called getting Direct Payments.
Eligibility
To qualify for Direct Payments to care for your disabled child you must:
- Have a needs assessment
- Meet the eligibility criteria
- Have parental responsibility for a disabled child
- Be willing to receive Direct Payments and able to manage them, with assistance if required
- Be able to make decisions or express preferences about the services you receive
How does it work?
The council will tell you in writing what your Direct Payment will be after your needs assessment.
When you are ready to start arranging the services your Direct Payments worker will arrange for the money to be paid to you each month.
You will be asked to set up a separate bank account for the money.
The council has to check that you are using the money properly so you will need to keep financial records. Your direct payments worker will help you to do this.
Individual Budgets
You may have the option to use an Individual Budget instead of a Direct Payment.
Whereas a direct payment is used to purchase either a service or a person, an Individual Budget can give more scope to purchase equipment, holidays, membership to sports clubs or to build a support team around the child’s/families needs.
The flexibility of an Individual Budget allows you to tailor the support you receive to meet your needs as a whole, rather than being provided with fragmented support from different agencies.