Individual Budgets Programme

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Individual Budgets Programme
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The basic mandate for the Pilots

• The government said it would pilot individual
  budgets in
• Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People
• Opportunity Age
• Independence, Well-being and Choice

If the pilots show the anticipated benefits, we
will begin rolling out individual budgets
nationally within the lifetime of the next
Parliament (Opportunity Age)
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Choice and control
move from a system where people have to take
what is offered to one where people have greater
control over identifying the type of support or
help they want and more choice about and
influence over the services on offer. Independenc
e Well-being and choice
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Why? Because people want different things than
we are giving them at the moment
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Through having control over the money
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About the pilot programme

• 13 Local Authorities
• Will run for between 18 months and 2 years
• Will be fully evaluated
• Will be supported by a team from CSIP (Care
  Services Improvement Partnership)
• Draws heavily on learning from In Control, and
  from barriers to Direct Payment take-up

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Which councils were chosen?

• West Sussex County Council
• Lincolnshire County Council
• Leicester City Council
• Essex County Council
• Norfolk County Council
• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Coventry City Council
• Bath and North East Somerset Council
• Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council
• London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
• Gateshead Council
• Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
• Manchester City Council

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How can we make it work for people?

• A quick assessment that takes account of your
  needs, and streamlines the processes between
  different funding streams so you dont need to
  be asked the same thing multiple times and so
• You get told early on and up front how much money
  is available for your support from a range of
  income streams
• Social Care Money
• Independent Living Fund
• Supporting People
• Disabled Facilities Grant
• Access to Work

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• You will then be in a good position to
• Plan realistically and flexibly the best way to
  meet your needs, with help from support planners,
  brokers, information agencies, your family and
  friends to suit you so that you can
• Be creative and flexible about how to meet your
  needs making best use of resources which
  include the money available to you, the family
  and community resources around you that you can
  build on. This will unlock a whole range of
  possibilities to you that the current system
  cannot offer. And then
• Monitoring and accountability arrangements that
  are proportionate

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Some quotes from the first Individual Budget
recipients
The most important thing for me is keeping out
of hospital. I wanted to put air conditioning in
one room downstairs, Ive got it now and its
great. I wouldnt have happened if I hadnt
thought about whats possible through Individual
Budgets. I am now making my house accessible so I
can get in and out and this means I can also have
my disabled friends to visit. Lifes going to
change for the better for my husband too now.
Personally I have had a great mistrust of social
services, my goal is to be as independent as
possible. I found the whole experience fulfilling
the people I thought were in control were
suddenly with me. There was less of a feeling of
them and us, this time it was like we are in it
together.
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GENERAL ISSUES

• The Pilot process is stimulating a variety of new
  and creative support arrangements.
• There is growing confidence in the Resource
  Allocation System.
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• There important links to other policy issues e.g.
  Direct Payments and User Led Organisations.
•  
• Merging different funding streams is presenting
  challenges.

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OLDER PEOPLES ISSUES

• Still early days, the numbers are small.
•  
• The point of referral is often at a crisis. How
  do we ensure that people remain in control.
•  
• People are shocked when they discover how much
  their existing services cost.
•  
• People are using Individual Budgets
  creativelyoften a mix and match.

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SUPPORTING PEOPLE ISSUES

• All sites have included Supporting People in
  their work.
•  
• How to develop Resource Allocation Systems to
  include Supporting People as part of a package of
  funding streams or on a stand alone basis.
•  
• How to develop self assessment tools to take full
  account of Housing Related Support.
•  
• How to work with existing contracting
  arrangements to allow maximum flexibility.
•  

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www.individualbudgets.csip.org.uk www.in-control.o
rg.uk