What is a personal budget or direct payment?
Having a personal budget gives you more choice and control over the support you receive to help you live independently and you should be able to:
Choose how to spend the money
Control the money you get for support
Choose how or who you want to receive services from
Social Care/Local authority Budgets
Anyone who eligible for social care funding in England is able to request a personal budget from their Local Authority. The budget amount is worked out after a social worker completes an assessment and a direct payment is one way you can receive your personal budget.
Age UK has a useful factsheet accessible here for more information on social care budgets: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs24_personal_budgets_and_direct_payments_in_social_care_fcs.pdf
NHS Personal Health Budgets
If your needs are more health-related you may be eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare care from your local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which is not means tested. For example people with spinal cord injuries who are at risk of Autonomic Dysreflexia (T6 and above) may be eligible for this funding. A Nurse Assessor would come to assess your needs using the NHS Decision Support Tool or DST. With this route you are also able to request a Personal Health Budget and Direct Payment in a similar way to Social Care budgets.
Here is an NHS England link about NHS Continuing Healthcare and how to arrange an assessment through your local CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group): https://www.england.nhs.uk/healthcare/
How will I receive the money?
With either a Social Care or NHS Continuing Care personal budget, you can choose to receive your budget either as a Direct Payment or as an arranged budget through the funding team or third party broker.
Direct payments
With a Direct payment your personal budget is paid directly into your bank account or on a pre-payment card and the payments are often paid to you at weekly or monthly intervals. It can also be possible to have a direct payment paid to an appropriate person for them to manage the money on your behalf if required. With a Direct payment you or the appropriate person manage the money and can choose how and where you spend the budget to meet your outcomes. You can choose to recruit your own staff or you may wish to use a care provider to provide you with the services.
Employing your own staff
If you choose to recruit and employ your own staff then this means you become the legal ‘employer’ and you will need to manage all the legal, financial and practical employment details. You will be required to provide receipts for the payments made from your personal budget. Your funding authority will usually have support services they offer to help you understand the legalities and what is required from you as an employer.
Purchasing care from a provider
Choosing to use a care provider means they should handle all the legal and practical issues for you, including training of the PAs and care assistants, 24hr clinical support and having contingency care staff available if required. All care providers should be registered with the CQC who inspect and regulate care services.
If the provider specialises in spinal injury care for example, they will also be able to train and manage all the specific care requirements associated with spinal injuries in addition to all the mandatory Skills for Care standards, such as:
Care and management of the neurogenic bowel
Autonomic Dysreflexia
The registered manager for the service should work closely with you to oversee the care provision and have clear quality assurance processes. The care provider will invoice the budget holder for the care services and the care provider will be able to provide any documentation the funding authority may require such as a breakdown of care services for example.
Paragon Home Healthcare specialise in spinal injury care and flexible live-in or 24hr care for a wide range of conditions. Our experienced nursing team carefully oversee and manage the training and care to deliver a high-quality service which suits your needs, wishes and requirements. Paragon Home Healthcare is fully regulated by the CQC.
If you’d like to chat to us about your options or to learn more please do call our friendly team on 020 3006 2802 or send us an email to info@paragonhh.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help.
We hope you have found this article helpful