Help with managing your personal budget - Consultation

Proposed changes to how Haringey Council supports people to manage their personal budget

This consultation is now closed

• What were we consulting on?
• Current service
• How the service will work in future?
• What changes were proposed?
• What doesn't change?
• Reason for proposed changes
• Why we were consulting?
• When we consulted
• Who we consulted
• How people could be heard and have their say.
• What happened next
• For more information

What were we consulting on?

Haringey Council’s introduction of self directed support is designed to provide people with a personal budget, to spend on meeting their eligible social care needs.

People will be supported to choose and organise their support in the way that suits them best. Residents will have the choice of taking their personal budget in a number of ways, including a Direct Payment.

This consultation looked at the policy options for helping people to mange their personal budgets effectively and how the Council would audit this.

Current service

Currently help and support to manage personal budgets is provided buy the Personal Budget Support and Review Team in Adult Service. This does not change.

How the service will work in future?

The service will remain broadly the same but with a clear framework for supporting people who may need extra help to find the services they need. The framework includes how the Council will treat unspent balances that may build up in a person’s Direct Payment bank account.

What changes were proposed?

• As part of the agreement people sign to have their personal budget as a Direct Payment, the council requires people to keep and provide bank statements and receipts for expenditure on request
• It was proposed that people would be able to keep up to eight weeks' worth of Direct Payments in their Direct Payment bank account before the Council would consider recovering funds.
• The eight week level is made up of four weeks contingency for emergencies and four weeks to cover unpaid bills
• The Council may also agree with individuals that they can use part of their Direct Payment to save towards a large purchase if it is included in their support plan

Full details were set out in the consultation letter that can be found in the attached files section at the bottom of this page.

The draft policy can also be found in the attached files section.

What doesn't change?

Support to help people arrange their own care and to set up and manage a Direct Payment will not change.

Reason for proposed changes

Haringey Council’s introduction of self directed support has greatly increased the number of people choosing to take their personal budget as a Direct Payment.

The Council therefore needed a clear framework for supporting people who may need extra help to find the services they need and fair rules for the recovery of unspent balances that may build up in a person’s Direct Payment bank account.

|Back to top

---

Why we were consulting?

Haringey Council is committed to involving users of these services and others in decisions that affect them - especially decisions about the care and support services they receive.

We wanted people's views about the proposed changes to help us to make the changes with people who use personal budgets in mind.

When we consulted

The consultation ran from 21 November to 21 December 2011.

Who we consulted

People who currently have a Direct Payment

• Other key stakeholders from the voluntary and independent sectors

How people could be heard and have their say.

• Completed our online questionnaire
• Completed our easy read version of the questionnaire
• Alternatively you could have downloaded and completed a paper version of the questionnaire

Help with managing your personal budget
Haringey Council
Consultation Team
Freepost NAT 20890
PO Box 264
London
N22 8BR

Email: finance.assessment.team@haringey.gov.uk

What happened next?

All comments and feedback received, together with Equalities Impact Assessments that were completed, were recorded and summarised in a detailed report. This helped us consider this proposal and reach a decision in January 2012.

Results of the consultation will be available towards the beginning of January 2012. If approved, the changes would come into effect from January 2012.

For more information

If people needed any of our consultation documents in other formats they were invited to contact Marcus Power on 020 8489 3913.

Below are various files that provided people with all the relevant information around the proposed consultation.

|Back to top

---

Attached Files