Personal Budgets

Introduction

If you need social care support from Doncaster Council, we think you should have choice and control over which services you access to meet your needs. To give you this choice and control we are introducing Personal Budgets.

What is a Personal Budget?

Personal Budgets are a new way of delivering social care to people in Doncaster. They are designed to help you take control of your own social care budget, manage your support and choose the services that suit you best. It puts you at the centre of the planning process as you are best placed to understand your own needs.

If you have been assessed as being eligible for care services from Doncaster Council, you will be told exactly how much money you have to spend on your eligible care and support needs. This amount of money is known as your ‘Personal Budget’.

Who can have a Personal Budget?

To get a Personal Budget you need to be entitled to receive social care support under the Council’s Fair Access to Care Services criteria. In Doncaster if your needs are assessed as being Critical, Substantial or Moderate then you will be eligible for services.

To find out if you are eligible, you need to contact the Council’s Adult Contact Team, the contact details are at the top of this page.

Our Fact Sheet ‘Fair Access to Care Services’ will give you details on how we decide who’s entitled in Doncaster. A copy can be downloaded from this page.

Will I need to pay anything?

Whether you pay towards the support you receive will depend on how much money you have. We will undertake a financial assessment with you, which will decide whether and how much you will need to pay towards the cost of your care. We will also check that you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to.

How do I get a Personal Budget?

If you are eligible, you will complete a Self Assessment Questionnaire. This will help to identify your social care needs. The assessment looks at areas of your life like:

• Your personal care needs

• Aspects of daily living

• Keeping safe

• Social inclusion

You can complete the questionnaire on your own or with help from a carer, relative or someone who knows you well.

The Self Assessment Questionnaire forms part of a community care assessment, an assessor will meet with you and go through the questionnaire with you and complete the other parts of the assessment.

The information you provide in your Self Assessment Questionnaire will be used to give an indication of how much money you will require, to meet your needs. Someone from the Council’s Financial Assessment Team will visit you to tell you how much money you need, and to find out whether you will need to pay for part or all of your care.

You will then be asked to create a Support Plan. This will say how you plan to use the money. You can think about what you want to achieve and how you want to organise your support. Again, you can do this on your own or get help to do this. If you want to write the support plan yourself we will provide a guide that can help you to think what needs to be in your plan. If you want help to write the plan, you could ask family, friends or some other people that you think might be good support for you.

An assessor will meet with you and go through the support plan and it will have to be agreed and ensure that what you have planned will meet the needs you have identified in your self assessment in a safe way.

What needs to be in my Support Plan?

When you write your Support Plan you should think about the needs you identified in your Self Assessment Questionnaire and the changes you want to achieve to make your life better. You should say what services or other things you will buy with the money you are given to meet your needs and to achieve the outcomes that are important to you.

How do I organise my Personal Budget?

You can organise your support in different ways. These include:

1. A payment made directly to you

We can give the money to you if you want to manage your support yourself, this is called a Direct Payment. This will mean that you will be responsible for paying and organising this support and will need to open a separate bank account. You won’t be on your own though – you can get help with recruiting and pay staff Council’s Direct Payment Support Service or an independent support agency.

2. A payment made to someone else on your behalf 

We can pay the money to a suitable person to manage on your behalf. you can still make decisions about how it is used but the suitable person administers the payment and keeps records. This is called an Indirect Payment. The information below tells you a little bit more about how this might work and help you to decide on a suitable person to manage your Direct payment.

Suitable Person Guidance

How to set up an Indirect Payment

 3. A social care worker

The care manager working for the Council acts on your behalf. They plan, arrange and organise the support for you and makes sure it is paid for. If you decide that a care manager is the best person to help you, the Council will keep the money and use it to pay for your services.

4. A combination of social care worker and Direct Payment or Indirect Payment

You can choose to have a Direct Payment or Indirect Payment to buy some of the support you need and have other support services provided for you by the council.

When you are ready you can discuss with your social worker how you would like to organise your Personal Budget.

Will a Personal Budget affect my income?

Your Personal Budget is not personal income – it’s paid to meet your social care needs. You do not need to declare it for tax or benefit purposes.

How can I get more information?

• You can talk to your social care worker if you already have one

• Contact the Adult Contact Team

• Or, for more information regarding 'Financial Assessment and your Personal Budget', please use the following link:
  
  Financial Assessments Link

To see staff without an appointment visit the Council House in Doncaster between 9.30am and 4pm Monday to Friday.

Telephone: (01302) 737391
E-mail: adultcontactteam@doncaster.gov.uk
Write to: Adult Contact Team
P.O. Box 251
The Council House
College Road
Doncaster
DN1 3AD
01302 737391

For Learning Disabilities Service Contact:

Telephone:  (01302) 796835
Write to: Learning Disabilities Service
Mexborough Business Centre
College Road
Mexborough
Doncaster
S64 9JP

For Visual or hearing impairment services contact:

Either by telephone/textphone or call into Council House at one of the following times:

Duty Times:
Monday 12:30 - 4pm
Wednesday 12:30 - 4pm
Friday 12:30 - 4pm  

Textphone only: 01302 737973
Voice/Textphone 01302 737783
SMS 07979031116

Team Manager 01302 737784 (Voice and text)
Write to: Sensory Team
P.O Box 251
The Council House
College Road
Doncaster
DN1 3DA.