Archived decisions
COUNTY COUNCIL - SOCIAL CARE - 16 MAY, 2002
DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR PARENTS OF DISABLED CHILDREN
1. The Carers & Disabled Children Act 2000 (Section 7) introduced the power for local authorities to provide services to disabled children and those with parental responsibility for them by way of Direct Payments.
2. The Children's Services Sub-Committee of The Social Services Committee on 18 April 2001 agreed to initiate a pilot scheme of 10 cases using this new power in order to gauge take-up and develop the processes of delivering Direct Payments within the Children and Families sector.
3. Seven families (eight children as there is a set of twins) have started to use Direct Payments to date and more are expressing an interest.
4. To date Direct Payments have been arranged for one disabled young person aged 16 or 17 years and three more are actively considering it.
5. A detailed departmental procedure document has been developed and is to be published. This document covers all care groups and is a development of the previous departmental procedure which applied to adults only prior to 1 April 2001
6. A specific leaflet for carers promoting Direct Payments has been published and distributed.
7. Training has been instituted for fieldwork staff within the Children and Families sector.
8. The Hampshire Direct Payments Website is being updated, in partnership with the disabled people who first worked on the site, to accommodate the extension of Direct Payments to all care groups. It is expected this work will be completed by the autumn of 2002. However, in the meantime the processes described on the site apply to parent/carers; it is the language which has to be changed.
9. A contract, offered by tender, for a half-time Direct Payments Support Worker for Carers and Parent/Carers has been agreed with Carers Together in Hampshire as the successful tenderer and the post has been filled. Demand is such, particularly from Parent/Carers, it is likely that during the financial year 2002/3 this contract will have to be extended to full-time. This contract is funded from The Carers Special Grant.
10. It is not possible to predict uptake of Direct Payments as it is the choice of the Parent/Carer and/or the disabled young people whether they wish to use this method of service delivery.
11. However, demand for Direct Payments within the Children and Families sector continues and given this authority's expertise and commitment in this area plus the measures now put in place to support the use of Direct Payments there is little doubt that this will be a growth area.
12. All client groups are now able to access the Direct Payment Scheme.
13. The Executive Member for Social Care has extended the use of Direct Payments beyond the initial pilot of 10, as a method of service delivery for parents of disabled children, in response to demand.
Felicity Hindson MBE
Executive Member, Social Care
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