Self-directed support lets people buy their own services, but there are some misunderstandings about how this works. Here, we look at some of the most common 'myths'.

Under the old support system, social services and other professionals assessed you and then told you what services they were going to provide. With self-directed support, you get to say what you want out of life, and plan what support would be best for you.

The rules and processes surrounding self-directed support can sometimes be complicated, and there are a great many misunderstandings about the way it works. In this section, we look at some of the most common 'myths' about self-directed support and reveal whether they are true or not.

True or false?

If I receive my personal budget as a direct payment, I must have a separate bank account set up exclusively for this.

True: a separate bank account helps you to keep the money provided for the things agreed in your support plan separate from your other money. It also helps you to keep a better record of how you spend your personal budget, in case your local authority needs this information for audit purposes.

I can spend my personal budget on whatever I like.

False: although a personal budget allows you to be creative and have choice and control, it is still money that comes from social services and is provided specifically to meet your care needs as assessed by social services. Therefore, the money can only be spent on helping to meet those needs.

It is also worth clarifying that a personal budget cannot be used for anything that could cause harm to your health, safety or well-being or that is purposefully illegal. Nor can personal budgets be used to buy services or goods that are ordinarily provided by statutory organisations (eg speech and language therapy, psychiatry, etc).

True or false? (continued)

After completing my assessment, my social worker told me the amount of money that her 'resource allocation system' indicated it will cost to meet my assessed needs. She says I must stick within this amount of money when writing my support plan.

False: the initial amount of money calculated by the resource allocation system is an indicative amount - it can be challenged through your support plan. Local authorities cannot put a cap on care costs, so if a need is assessed as meeting the eligibility criteria set out in social care guidelines1, your local authority must make sure that this need is met.

There may be differing opinions as to how to meet a specific care need. For example, the parent of a person with autism may believe that their child needs a specialist autism support provider, whereas a local authority may feel that a general learning difficulties support provider will be able to meet the assessed need adequately.

Support plans should be flexible and creative but must also demonstrate how a person's eligible, assessed needs are being met.

True: your personal budget is money that comes from social services; therefore the money must be spent on meeting any care needs you have which meet eligibility criteria. This can be done as creatively as you wish, as long as it relates to and assists in meeting your assessed needs.

If a person does not have mental capacity (as assessed under the Mental Capacity Act 2005) they cannot manage their own personal budget.

True: however, this does not mean that your local authority has to manage the budget. A family member, legal trust, provider organisation (via an individual service fund), a broker or someone you trust (and who is approved by your local authority) could manage your personal budget on your behalf.

My social worker says that I have to manage my personal budget via a direct payment.

False: there are a number of ways that a personal budget can be managed, one of which is a direct payment of part or all of the budget to the person receiving social services funding. Alternatively, a personal budget can be managed through a legal trust, by a suitable person (such as a friend or family member), a broker, a provider organisation (through an individual service fund) or by your local authority.

Although local authorities are using self-assessment questionnaires, a suitably qualified person will still come out to assess me using the Government's eligibility criteria.

True: self-assessment has its place, but social services cannot delegate assessment. There are a number of ways that local authorities handle this, such as through a joint assessment where you sit down with your social worker and possibly a family member, friend or advocate. You complete the assessment together, offering your views and discussing the outcome.

Another way is for a social worker to send you a self-assessment questionnaire in advance and give you time to complete it before they come out to do their own assessment , and discuss both your views and their own.

My social worker has written my support plan without talking to me to find out what I want. He says I must sign it and this is how my personal budget is going to be allocated.

False: the whole point of 'personalisation' and self-directed support is that it gives you choice and control over how your personal budget is spent, in order to meet your assessed needs. It should be decided based on what you think will best help you to meet these needs, often in partnership with your family, friends, an advocate, broker and/or support staff that you trust and know well. The social worker will be able to help but should not write the support plan on their own without you or your representative.

If I use my personal budget to directly employ my own personal assistant, I will become legally responsible for things such as their safety in my home and their employment rights.

True: if you use your personal budget to employ staff, you become the purchaser, the employer and/or the contractor; therefore you will be responsible for all the usual legal obligations associated with these roles.

If a person spends all their money on something that is not agreed in the support plan, their local authority will leave them with no support.

False: if a person has an identified need, their local authority has a duty to meet that need. If a person has misspent some or all of their personal budget, their local authority may decide to take back control of the budget and manage it themselves. It is also possible that the authority will seek to recover the misspent money, through legal routes if necessary.

If I am managing my personal budget via a direct payment I will need to keep receipts and invoices for my local authority to audit.

True: your local authority will need copies of all receipts and invoices for purchases that are made with your direct payment. This allows them to have information about where social services money is being spent, to identify if you need additional help in managing your money and to make sure that you are spending money on what has been agreed in your support plan.


1 The official guidelines for assessing adult social care needs are called Prioritising need in the context of Putting People
First: a whole system approach to eligibility for social care. Guidance in eligibility criteria for adult social care England 2010.

Some useful definitions

Personal budget (PB)
A personal budget is the budget for meeting your assessed social care needs and is made up from social services money only.

Individual budget (IB)
An individual budget is made up from social services money plus at least one other funding source, such as Independent Living Fund (ILF), Supporting People grants, disabled facilities grants, Access to Work scheme and so on. (Please note that some of these funding streams, such as ILF, are closed to new applicants and others have been reduced as a result of Government cuts and loss of ring-fenced grants).

Direct payment (DP)
A direct payment is a cash payment of all or part of your personal budget into a bank account that has been set up specifically for this purpose.

Resource allocation system (RAS)
Resource allocation systems have been set up by many local authorities to allow the fair, equal and transparent allocation of money for adult social care. The systems are used to help calculate the amount of money needed to meet each person's social care needs. Not all local authorities are using the RAS: some have purchased other systems such as FACE. These systems are all based on the same principle of fair, equal and transparent calculation of funding.

Self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ)
The self-assessment questionnaire links to the RAS and goes through the sections set out in Government guidance called Fair access to care services (see 'Useful documents', below). The questionnaire will determine whether you meet the criteria to receive social services funding. The idea of the self-assessment questionnaire is that the views of the person being assessed and/or their family members are given more consideration.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has produced a booklet to support social workers in assessing people who have autism, which can be downloaded from www.autism.org.uk/socialcare

Eligibility matrix
Once you have had your assessment, you will be classed as having either a low, moderate, substantial or critical level of need in each assessed area. Local authorities can choose which of these levels of need they offer support to, with most only offering support to those meeting substantial or critical need. There are a few local authorities who offer support to people with moderate needs, although the number doing this is dropping significantly in response to Government cuts to local authority budgets.

Broker
A broker is an independent person who can assist you in writing, costing and implementing your support plan. Brokers usually charge a fee and this will be costed into your support plan. Some local authorities may have commissioned a particular brokerage agency to work with all people using adult services and may ask you to use this broker. For more information and a list of recognised brokers in your area, visit www.nationalbrokeragenetwork.org.uk

Individual service fund (ISF)
This is where a support provider manages your budget for you for a fee. This does not mean that you must receive all your support for that one provider - your support plan can still be as flexible as you like. The provider managing the ISF will hold the budget, receive and pay invoices and maintain records required by the local authority for audit purposes. If you choose to use an ISF it is likely that a three-way contract between you, the provider and the local authority will be drawn up.

Useful documents

Here are links to other documents we have mentioned in this information about self-directed support.

Department of Health. (2003). Fair access to care services - guidance on eligibility criteria for adult social
care. London: Department of Health.
Visit: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4009653

Department of Health. (2010). Prioritising need in the context of Putting People First: a whole system
approach to eligibility for social care - guidance on eligibility criteria for adult social care, England 2010.
London: Department of Health.
Visit: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_113154