Direct Payment Agreements and Factsheets
What we did
The ADASS West Midlands Direct Payments Network has reviewed Direct Payment Agreements and accompanying factsheets. A working group considered the range of Agreements currently in use across the region between the council and the Direct Payment recipient with a view to agreeing a common format which could be adapted to local circumstances. The guiding principles of the review were that information should be:
- Accessible - no jargon or legalese
- In easy read format
- Brief
- Co-produced
- Outcome
Why we did it
The new Care and Support Bill places a general responsibility for a local authority to establish and maintain a service for providing people in its area with information and advice relating to care and support for adults and support for carers. This includes providing information about the care and support system and how it operates, and the choices of types of care and support. There is an implicit need to provide information about direct payments and how they operate. This model documentation satisfies this requirement.
Mapping the preferred process against existing processes demonstrated current practice could be improved. Non-essential information was included in the Agreements, with 'clauses' added over time intended to cover specific and rare situations which have occurred locally, even though the resolution of these situations in practice has generally not been achieved by invoking the terms of the Agreement but by thoughtful, individual negotiation. Consultation exercises conducted by individual councils with Direct Payment recipients demonstrated that people want information which is clear, understandable and accessible. Often they prefer this to be provided by the Council. It is recommended that the Direct Payment Agreement should contain only the essential information and this should be accompanied by a range of complementary 'Factsheets' to advise Direct Payment recipients about their rights and responsibilities in terms of being an employer, purchasing services and equipment etc.
Outcome
To date the standard Direct Payments Agreement has been completed and work is ongoing to produce a Suitable Person Agreement and a one off Agreement. (The general consensus, based on experience, is that trying to combine these 3 documents into a single one is counter-productive and can result in a more complicated and lengthy document). A series of Fact Sheets have also been produced, and these together with the Agreement template, can be accessed on the West Midlands Improvement and Efficiency website.
Contact details
Sue Williams, Project Development Manager, ADASS West Midlands, suewilliamswestmidlands@gmail.com, Tel: 07824 605 653