Think Local Act Personal Tag Listing

Region: South West, PlymouthOrganisation: Plymouth Guild, Disability Information & Advice Centre (DThe First Contact for Carers project piloted improvements to existing services and pathways for carers to ensure earlier recognition of their needs. This was trialled as follows: 1.

Over three months we piloted the first ever national Carers' Information and Support Programme for carers of people with dementia prior to rolling it out nationally. At three locations, trained facilitators delivered four pilot modules designed in conjunction with carers, providing them with quality information about dementia, practical advice on day to day caring, and signposting carers to local services and financial benefits.

New research, commissioned on behalf of councils, has highlighted the growing significance of people paying for their own care and support ('self-funders') and underlined the importance of people getting the right information and advice when it comes to understanding and considering their options. The two linked reports from the Institute for Public Policy at Oxford Brookes University and Melanie Henwood Associates suggest that people who pay for their own care are not guaranteed greater choice and control unless they are properly advised, but it is also clear that many people do not wish to approach councils to get that advice.

As councils look to develop new and more empowering relationships with people who use their services, finding effective ways of teaching people the skills to design and manage their own support arrangements, including through peer support, is becoming increasingly important. This report shows how it is possible to build disabled people and carers' own support planning skills, rather than relying solely on professional solutions.

This guide was developed with older people and people with mental health difficulties and their supporters as well as people involved in support planning. It responds to the findings of the Personal budgets pilots evaluation, which concluded that more work was required to develop approaches to support planning and brokerage that work for all groups of people rather than just some.

This DVD has been developed by the Equalities National Council specifically to help increase the take up of Direct Payments amongst people from black and minority ethnic groups. The DVD is available in English, Urdu, Hindi and Somali.

This SCIE resource guide explains how to develop inter-agency protocols to support families where parents have additional needs related to physical and/or sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health, drug and alcohol-related problems or serious illnesses. The guidance is based on policy and legislative frameworks for adults' and children's services.

This Department of Health document is an example of an Equality Impact Assessment for Direct Payments, which should be included in provision of direct payments services. When assessing their direct payments services with their partners and subsequent implementation of changes, councils must look at all of the equality issues.

These case studies are reports taken directly from local authorities and illustrate approaches taken to increasing the uptake of Direct Payments amongst people from BME communities. Each case study provides a top tip, a detailed explanation of the approach taken and contact details for further information.

This four-page document provides mental health staff with a straightforward introduction to Direct Payments. It explains what Direct Payments are and how they can be used.