Community care minister Stephen Ladyman told social care staff to double their efforts to make direct payments available to people with learning difficulties, writes Janet Snell.

He said the fact that just one in a hundred adults with a learning difficulty receiving community services were on direct payments was unacceptable when "the vast majority" could benefit from them.

"The slow take up of direct payments among learning disabled people is surely proof enough that many professionals do not believe learning disabled people can manage their affairs, even with assistance," he said.

Speaking at a 'Learning Disability Today' conference in London, the minister said that though the ideals in the Valuing People white paper were gradually becoming a reality, there was still a long way to go.

He said: "One real change that we haven't brought about yet is the change of culture and perception. The change that would see genuine acceptance of what people with learning disabilities can achieve and can offer."

He added that many councils wrongly believed they had a duty to offer direct payments when in fact they have a duty to make direct payments.

"The assumption should be that all care will be delivered via a direct payment," he declared, stressing that it was important to ensure that clients were properly supported to manage a direct payment.

Ladyman said he would soon be announcing a new date for the closure of long stay hospitals for people with learning difficulties now it was clear the April 2004 deadline was going to be missed.

Asked if he would allocate more cash to enable clients to move out into the community he replied "if it is a funding issue I will look to see what I can do…. But I think they dragged their feet before they started on planning."

Ladyman went on to say that he was angry that the £20 million allocated to strategic health authorities for people with learning difficulties was being spent on other things, and he was considering what action he could take on this.