FUNDING FROM YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL.

ASK FOR A ‘CARE NEEDS ASSESSMENT’

Should you need support at home then you should contact the social services department of your local council and ask for a ‘care needs assessment’.

A ‘care needs assessment’ is an assessment by your local council of how much support you need to enable you to retain your independence and remain at home.

A ‘care needs assessment’ can be undertaken by a social worker visiting you at home or you could be asked by your local council to complete a request for funding direct on line via a ‘Resource Allocation System’ (a RAS).

Contact your local council for advice. Different councils have different procedures.

ASK FOR A ‘PERSONAL BUDGET’

Once your assessed need has been established, you can then ask for you personally to be allocated a sum of money from the council to enable you to purchase your own support at home to meet your assessed needs. This council funding is called a ‘Direct Payment’ or a ‘Personal Budget’ and is funding paid at the beginning of each month or ‘four week period’ for the period ahead. The money will need to be paid into a separate bank account in your name for future audit purposes. Both a direct payment and personal budget are predominantly the same but you usually have a little more flexibility about how you spend the funding with a personal budget.

CLIENT CONTRIBUTION

You may be asked by your council to make a financial contribution towards your support at home for your ‘social care’. Please contact your local social services department of your council for advice. Every council is different.

YOUR CHOICE

Once in receipt of your personal budget you can choose to act as the legal employer of your personal carers yourself, choose HCD to act as the legal employer on your behalf, or choose a local care agency.

SPENDING YOUR PERSONAL BUDGET

If you wish to stay in control of your support at home then you may need to allocate some of your personal budget to recruiting and training your personal carers. If you act as legal employer yourself you will also need to allocate some funding for Employers National Insurance tax. If you choose to use HCD then all that is taken care of for you but still leaves you in control.