Top 10 tips: Personalisation glossary – funding terms
Personalisation can be confusing to those familiar with the traditional role of social services. But this, the first part of our personalisation glossary, addresses key funding terms. Robert Mair reports.
In this article:
Personalisation
Self-directed support
Individual Budgets
Personal Budgets
Direct Payments
Indirect Payments
Resource Allocation System
Indicative Allowance
Individual Service Fund
Support brokers
Personalisation
Personalisation is the all-encompassing term for the Government’s agenda to give people more choice about the care they receive. The system places the service user at the centre of the process and allows them to choose the agencies they use and the manner in which they receive support.
Self-directed support
Self-directed support is the term used for when people choose their services, organise their care and arrange for payments to be made. This is because the individual who requires the service is directing their own care and has choice when it comes to their support.
Individual Budgets
Service users receive an Individual Budget and use this to pay for a variety of services. The individual budget contains funding from several sources, including social services, the Independent Living Fund, Supporting People, Disabled Facilities Grant and Access to Work. It can also be used to purchase equipment if this is needed. Crucially, individual budgets encompass a number of different agencies but are accessed at a single point, making the system easier to navigate for service users compared to the old multi-agency approach.
Personal Budgets
Personal Budgets are similar to Individual Budgets, but are made up solely from social services funding. Personal Budgets are not multi-agency payments, so people would still have to contact other organisations if they receive some level of support from them. People also have a choice as to whether they receive the money as a direct payment, to receive a standard care service, or a mixture of both.
Direct Payments
Direct Payments are means-tested payments made instead of receiving social care. The money received should be enough to meet your care needs. Direct Payments have been available since 1997 and are made to a wide variety of people, including carers, adult service users and people with short-term needs. Direct Payments should not be confused with direct payment; this is the method in which Personal Budgets and Individual Budgets are paid.
Indirect Payments
Indirect Payments are similar to Direct Payments, but instead of being paid to the individual who needs the service, payments are made to a nominated individual or into a trust. The trustees or nominated people then pay for services on the individual’s behalf.
Resource Allocation System
The Resource Allocation System (RAS) is designed to be a fair funding system and to allocate money from adult social services. The RAS works against a set of strict guidelines to ensure it remains fair. It relies on a scoring system based on answers given to a series of questions and then places people within a series of funding bands.
Indicative Allowance
The Indicative Allowance is also known as the Gross Individual Budget and is the maximum amount of funding made available to meet an individual’s social care support needs. It is worked out through the RAS.
Individual Service Fund
An Individual Service Fund is an individual budget that a service provider manages on behalf of a service user. Payments are made with the understanding that the service provider can deliver what is needed and it meets the criteria set out in the service user’s support plan.
Support brokers
Support brokers provide help to people looking for care services. They are at the behest of the service user and provide the technical assistance to put the support package in place. Often they will be work independently from the local authority and will mediate between their client and the authority. Support brokers can be anybody from close friends and family to members of a local charity or voluntary organisation or a social worker.