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Not just about the money: reshaping social care for self-determination
- Author:
- DOWSON Steve
- Publisher:
- Community Living,|Emprise International Training and Consultancy
- Publication year:
- 2002
- Pagination:
- 48p.
- Place of publication:
- Bury St. Edmunds
Direct Payments should be regarded as the first step towards a system in which all the functions are allocated logically and clearly, avoiding conflicts of interest. Systems which follow this model, generically termed Individualised Funding (IF), already exist. Some fifty programmes are under way in several countries. Evaluations of these programmes are only now emerging, but reveal outcomes that are strikingly positive. Although the evidence is not, as yet, conclusive, there are also strong indications that a comprehensive IF system would be more effective in supporting selfdetermination, especially for people with learning difficulties, than the current Direct Payments provision. The development of Direct Payments into a comprehensive system of Individualised Funding would involve: permitting people who require support services, and wish to use IF, to develop and cost their own support plans, reflecting their own life aspirations ( this would replace community care assessment); creating a system in which the limitations of public funding are balanced against the requirements of the individual through a process of open negotiation between the person and the council, based on the plan prepared by the individual; providing funding to individuals who require assistance in developing their plan, so that they are able to purchase this help from a source that is independent of Social Services and service providers, and who is accountable solely to the disabled person; ensuring that help is available to people who receive IF in the administration of their funding, and, if required, in meeting the legal responsibilities as employer of personal assistants; encouraging the development of a market of support provider agencies who are willing and able to provide services tailored to the requirements of individual IF recipients; and authorising and funding an agency in each locality to regulate the supply of independent service brokers, and to provide an access point for people requiring brokerage services.
Certainties without centres: a discussion document on day services for people who have learning difficulties
- Author:
- DOWSON Steve
- Publisher:
- Values into Action
- Publication year:
- 1998
- Pagination:
- 38p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Discusses the arguments for and against large day centres for people with learning difficulties and looks at other options such as activities which are based in the community, sheltered employment, small drop in centres and other alternatives. Includes the views of parents and carers and the users themselves.