ASC direct payments: Claire's story - Video and audio transcripts

hi Claire thanks for agreeing to talk to me today about direct payment um can you just tell me a little bit about Joe yeah Joe is a young adult of Life he's 21. and he has a profound learning disability and some health needs and in terms of personal budgets and direct payments when did you first start thinking about the possibility of having a direct payment he had a direct payment when he was in children's which supported with additional carers to support with activities in the community and then it developed um as the what transitioned into adulthood into a personal health project which um basically sort of sustains his whole daily living needs so having had the direct payment and transitioning what what would you say was the main benefit what what was it about having a direct payment that made such a difference to Joe um the fact that it's it it's it can be completely Joe centered so it's personalized we get to choose the people that we think which I would like to have supporting him with his daily needs we get to be Innovative because we can go out and commission services that we think will fit Joe rather than Joe fitted into other Provisions about having the flexibility what kind of things does Joe do so we use at the moment we use these budgets for his activities so Joe rents an allotment um he goes swimming trampoline in we've commissioned a special needs dance therapist he has art therapy so we use as well as things like going to the local farm so we use the mini to purchase structured meaningful activities but it also funds as well the care support and it allows us it provides care support carers training and also if we needed to buy specific equipment for the carers or for Joe when Joe I'm assuming Joe had an assessment um so when this assessments are paid what support did you receive how did you get to know about direct payments what what information was given to you Joe was um allocated a an initially a social worker and then was allocated a personal health budget advisor and they didn't sort of say this is what we can do they said what does Joe need what is Joe interested in how can we make Joe's better life better and more structured and I sort of had my this is my magic one this is what I would want and then they designed and helped fit a funding package around that he talked about a a personal living advisor who who who are they what organization are they so they're from Health they're from the health and they come under the part of the continuing Health criteria sort of resource she meets with me regularly she oversees my budget she has linked me with I access Pandora's trust who helped me with recruitment um and sort of the advertising of staff and job descriptions and all of that and she also checks in and make sure that the care plan that we have for Joe with the budget still meets his needs she's somebody that I regularly consult with um and also they linked me in as well so I've got fantastic um sort of Human Resources around employer responsibility staff oversight which is also covered under that that support at the moment Joe lives with you here but longer term what's the plan for jazz so Joe's um So currently we we have um purchased Joe A House nearby um because Joe we know that Joe would not fit in a residential community and struggles to be with other people so we've we've made that our our sort of thing we bought the house um and the um he's now transitioning into his own home full-time the personal health budget has now looked at being designed around the support Joe needs 24-hour support two to one all times so the care package now has been developed further and whilst I was buying the house I was Consulting with health is this doable can we staff this have we got enough resources and I made sure that they were fully aware of that process of Joe moving and of home into his own home but I had the reassurances that he would have that package of support that he needs now that I wouldn't be providing as much informal support so if you if you think back to when Joe had a direct payment to the local Authority and now if you had to go through the process again what would be the what what information would you have liked to have had that would have made a difference at the beginning what what's the key information that would have helped I think the key information is just focusing on what your child or member of your family loves doing what is that's the essence of who they are and then think about the things that would fit for them rather than thinking well what services are out there I can take my member of my family too don't think services and then think what do they want what do they want what do I need for them um and and having people to support you to have that literally if you had a magic wand what would you what would you do that has been for me and it's it's evolved I think as we've become really centered around me in individual needs now we we can be adventurous and creative and spontaneous and think well okay there aren't any dance therapy sessions Joe can go to because it means being with other people can I ask somebody to come in and do it in the home you know and having that confidence that actually if you can justify why you need it usually you know you've got a good chance of sort of having that allocated in that care plan and one last question why why would you recommend the DP to someone what is it about a DP that you would say this is why it's a good thing to think it's utterly freeing because it means that we get to choose the people that we know our son will get on with we know that we can choose the activities we know that we've got the support behind us to empower Joe to live a much better happy and meaningful life and that's what you get with the direct payment or personal health budget you get the freedom to design it yourself