Fresh pilots are needed to examine how self-directed support can
be implemented for disabled people, despite the trialling of
individual budgets (IBs) from 2005-7, the disability minister has
said.
In an interview with Community Care, Jonathan Shaw said
Department for Work and Pensions plans to test how disabled people
can take control of state resources spent on them were justified
because lessons remained to be learned.
Former social worker
The former social worker was speaking after a
consultation
was launched on providing disabled people with a "right to
control" funding for services including social care, supported
housing, employment support and housing adaptations.
This will be piloted in eight "trailblazer" areas for two to
three years from 2010 onwards.
The idea is similar to the Department of Health's IB pilots - an
evaluation of which was published last
year.
Direct payments
For instance, people will be told how much funding they are
eligible for and will be able to take it as a direct payment or
leave it to public bodies to manage.
Money will be pooled from a range of sources, including many of
the funding streams used in the IB pilots: social care,
Supporting People,
Disabled Facilities Grant,
Independent Living Funds and
Access to Work.
The consultation paper also asks a range of questions about
implementing self-directed support in general.
Withdrawing from service
These include, what should happen when a service that some
people want to use is put at risk if other users withdraw from it,
and how individuals can receive sufficient support and advocacy to
exercise choice.
With councils rolling out personal budgets for social care users
as part of the DH's personalisation agenda,
organisations including the National Centre for Independent Living
have questioned the rationale for the "right to control"
trailblazers.
But "individual budgets and direct payments are not everywhere,"
Shaw said. "We need to really drill down on the potential competing
demands [in implementing self-directed support]."
All disabled, not just care users
- Unlike IBs, the "right to control" will apply to all disabled
people, not just social care users, and be enshrined in law by the
current
Welfare Reform Bill.
Shaw said the legislation would help tackle the legal and
administrative barriers to integrating funding streams identified
by the evaluation of the IB pilots.
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