Dorset County Council Adult and Community Services
Self Directed Support in Dorset
Information Summary
June 2009
Self Directed Support has been described as the most significant change to
social care in a decade, and in very simple terms, introduces more choice and
control for users of social care services than ever before.
This summary briefly describes the background to Self Directed Support and
explains how the process of allocating personal budgets will work.
WHAT IS SELF DIRECTED SUPPORT?
DEMOS, the Democratic think tank said in 2008;
“Personal Budgets and Self Directed Services mobilise the intelligence of
thousands of people to get better outcomes for themselves or value for
public money. People get personalised solutions that give them a better
quality of life, allow them to participate more in society and form strong
relationships at lower cost than traditional service solutions that often
isolate and leave them feeling dependent.”
Self Directed Support (SDS) is a change to the way that social care
assessment, care planning and service delivery works so that more choice
and control is given to service users and carers. The process of Self Directed
Support will, over the next three years, replace the care management process
and introduce a new model of ‘personalisation’. Personalisation is the
overarching principle of tailoring services to suit an individual’s needs and
desired outcomes with a strong emphasis on choice, control and early
intervention. The principles of personalisation and the process of Self
Directed Support are described in two key Government documents;
•
Putting People First
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/Publicati
onsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081118
•
Transforming Social Care
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/L
ocalAuthorityCirculars/DH_081934
Self Directed Support in Dorset is part of the wider Transforming
Social Care Programme which is being led by Harry Capron, Head
of Service Development at Dorset County Council. The diagram
below summarises the individual elements (or workstreams) of this
programme, of which Self Directed Support is one.
Transforming Social Care
Structure
Cabinet
Fit for the Future Project Board
Executive Advisory Panel
Joint
Commissioning
Board
TSC Delivery Group
Local area agreement
Chairs of programmes
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment /
Commissioning Strategies
Co-ordination. Progress of Transforming Social Care Blueprint (TSC)
PROGRAMMES
THEME
CONNECTING
HEALTH &
SOCIAL CARE
UNIVERSAL
APPROACHES
COMMUNICATIONS
AND
STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT
WORKFORCE
STRATEGY
SELF DIRECTED
SUPPORT
DEVELOPING
THE MARKET
AND
USER-LED
APPROACHES
DEVELOPING CORE
SERVICES
EARLY
INTERVENTION
AND
REABLEMENT
CHAIRS
Harry Capron
Paul Leivers
Harry Capron
Steve Pitt
Harry Capron
Leads
Andrew Morris
Andrew
Archibald
Paul Leivers
Roland Atkins
Steve Clements
Programme
Lead
Jacky Walters
Jacky Walters
David Vitty
Kim Westaway
David Vitty
Alison Waller
David Vitty
David Vitty
Jacky Walters
Alison Waller
Diana Churchill
Programme
Support
vacant
Marie Baxter
Jo Morrish
Carol Cake
Karen Evans
Debbie Boyse
Debbie Catanzaro
Wendy Allwood
Becky Forrester
Brian Ironside
Richard Last
Gill Slade
Harry Capron
Gill Slade
Andrew Archibald
Glen Gocoul
What will Self Directed Support mean for Dorset?
In Dorset the Self Directed Support process which is set out in the diagram
below, has been piloted across five fieldwork teams
•
•
•
•
•
Older Peoples Team in North Dorset
Older Peoples Team in Weymouth
Learning Disability for West Dorset
Disability Team for Christchurch
Disability Team in Purbeck
Throughout this pilot the teams trialled a new supported assessment form, the
resource allocation system and individual support plans. These are the three
processes which will bring a far greater level of choice and control to service
users and, it is anticipated, dramatically raise the number of individuals taking
a direct payment and managing their own care arrangements. The forms and
processes are, at this stage, being refined and improved as we seek feedback
from professional staff and service users. The pilots, which saw up to 300
individuals in receipt of a personal budget, will be evaluated during the
summer of 2009.
A full scale roll-out of Self Directed Support to all adult services teams is
anticipated to begin in September 2009, and last no more than 12 months.
Supported Assessment
The supported assessment opens up a range of possibilities for service users
to express their needs and desired outcomes. The form has been designed
so that service users, if they chose to do so, can complete the form alone, or
with support from their personal support network, or their allocated
fieldworker. In some cases the allocated fieldworker, as is currently the case,
may complete the form entirely on behalf of the service user, but in future this
will only be in circumstances where the service user is unwilling or unable to
take an active part in their own assessment. Above all, the form has an
outcome focussed feel to it which compliments and enhances the recording of
need. The focus on outcomes for the Service User is a common theme
running throughout the new Self Directed Support process, and indeed at the
point of review, one of the most important factors is to establish if an
individual’s outcomes are being met by their support plan.
Resource Allocation System (RAS)
The Resource Allocation System is a process for calculating, from the
responses given in the supported assessment, a sum of money for the
individual service user to meet their needs and achieve their outcomes. The
sum of money that is generated by the RAS is sometimes called the “Upfront
Allocation” and once agreed becomes the personal budget for the individual.
The term individual budget applies to a sum of money which also includes
funding from such things as Disabled Facilities Grants, the Independent Living
Fund, Supporting People or Access to Work; personal budget is simply made
up of community care monies and is the process being used for the pilot in
Dorset.
Individual Support Plan
The Individual Support Plan, like the Supported Assessment, is a user driven
document and has the purpose of allowing the Service User (or carer) to set
out how they wish to use their personal budget to meet their needs and
achieve their outcomes. This form will replace the current care plan, and as
well as containing some of the same practical information as a care plan, will
also have a very strong person centred focus.
Service users can elect to ask for any of these processes to be completed by
the County Council, and can ask that the County Council plans care on their
behalf and makes arrangement for it in much the same way as the current
care management process. It has been suggested from pilot sites throughout
the country that about half of all people could ask the County Council to plan
and manage care on their behalf with the remainder taking partial or complete
control of planning and arranging their own care through a direct payment.
Support Planning
Support Planning is the term given to any process which helps an individual to
plan their care and record it in an individual support plan. It is anticipated that
this part of the process may benefit from the involvement of the third and
independent sector. In many pilot areas service users have asked for an
independent organisation to help them plan their care and write their support
plan, and further, to help them purchase the care they need. In Dorset it is
likely that arrangements will be put in place to allow service users, who chose
to do so, to approach a third sector organisation for help in completing their
support plan and arranging their care.
Direct Payments will continue as part of the Self Directed Support process,
and represent the mechanism by which money is passed from the County
Council to the individual.
Jargon Buster
Below is a Jargon Buster which explains some of the terminology used as part of the
Transforming Social Care process.
Individual Budgets give a clear allocation of cash to an individual to control
the way money is spent to meet his or her care needs. IBs can bring together
a variety of income streams from different agencies as well as social care.
Personal Budget is an individual budget made up solely of social care
funding.
Personalisation is the process by which state provided services can be
adapted to suit service users. This means everyone having choice and
control over the shape of their support along with a greater emphasis on
prevention and early intervention.
Person Centered Planning (PCP) is a process designed to assist someone
to make plans for their future. It is used most often as a life planning model to
enable individuals with disabilities to increase their personal independence.
Direct payments are regular monthly payments from social services enabling
people to purchase their own care, instead of receiving help arranged by
social services.
Self Directed Support is the name given to the change to the way the social
care system operates to give service users the choice, control and power over
the support service users receive. This process replaces care management.
Resource Allocation Systems (RAS)
Self directed support initiatives involve the cash value of personal budgets
being derived from an agreed resource allocation system which links an
individual’s needs to a consistently applied way to determining a cash or
budget value.