Interview-Direct Payments

Interview-Direct Payments

Interview with Ruth Lofthouse, from ASIST – the Leeds support service for Direct Payments and the Independent Living Fund. By Philip Hawley

What are direct payments?

It is money from the local authority to buy services. Anyone who is assessed as needing a social service has the right to ask for the money to pay for their own services themselves.

How do you get direct payments?

To get direct payments, you need to have a social worker, who will assess you for the support you need. If you don’t have a social worker, you can call the Social Services contact centre on 398 4702 – and say that you want to be referred for community care direct payments.

The social worker will then call us at ASIST to arrange an initial contact meeting. You can bring whoever you want to that meeting – a friend, family member or advocate. We talk about how direct payments might work for you, what your responsibilities would be and how we can support you. If you still want direct payments, the social worker would then write a care plan with you and get it approved.

ASIST then work with you to plan how you are going to use the direct payment – like thinking about what sort of person you want to employ and what they will be doing.

We can work with you to write the job description and job advert, provide support at interviews and write a job contract for them. It all sounds difficult, but that is why there is a support service. You don’t have to do it all on your own and you don’t have to worry.

Why do people want to use direct payments?

People get direct payments because they might not be happy with their services, because they might want their support to be more flexible, or because they want to be more in control.

Is it difficult to get and use direct payments?

For some people, saying what your needs are and what you want can be difficult. Getting the right staff can also take time – getting someone you like and someone who can do the job.

There is also a bit of paperwork – but there is support to do it, or you can ask someone you know to help.

There is no set time for getting direct payments and different people work at different speeds.

Do you lose other services when you get direct payments?

That depends on how you want to use direct payments. You can have services and your assessment still shows that you have unmet needs. Or, you might chose to swap a service you use (like going to a day centre) for direct payments.

For more information about direct payments, you can contact the ASIST team on Tel  214 3654, by minicom on 214 3598 or by email on  asist@leeds.gov.uk

---

Next: Ethnicity Training Network
Return to: Newsletters