Local Authority Direct Payment Expenditure

HEH

Hi my name is Helen and I am new to the Scope online community. 

I am the main carer for my husband who suffered a brain injury in 2006 and is left with right sided hemiplegia and some cognitive difficulties. 

My husband receives direct payments from the local council. A duty social worker, who does not know my husband, recently told me he couldn't use his direct payments for transport to visit family. He has always done so for over 10 years as part of not feeling isolated at home (he is unable to work and I work full-time) and no-one from Adult Social Care has ever said this before. This is part of an accusation from social services that my husband has spent money on items disallowed by his direct payment budgets even though I have explained how they fit into his support plan. I feel this has recently all come about as my husband's normal assigned social worker has left the council and we only recently found out. Therefore, his direct payments are now being looked at by people who have never met him or have any understanding of the complexity of his needs.  We completed a review of my husband's support plan with social services at the start of the Covid pandemic which took almost 3 years to do with the support of an advocate in order to gain clarity about how he could spend his Direct Payments. It has been working well up until this point and now it feels like all the time, energy and stress during the review was a waste of time.

Does anyone else have any experience of this and how did you approach it? I'd be very interested to hear from you. My gut feeling is to complain to the social services about this apparent change to allowable expenditure as I feel it is the only way to get them to look into the matter properly. I originally asked them for a meeting to discuss this in September and no-one contacted me until January. Apparently, my husband is waiting to be assigned a new social worker, which doesn't help us now.

Sorry for the essay as my first post.

Thank you for reading.

Helen

Cher_Alumni

Hi @HEH and welcome to our online community, I'm really glad you found us. How is it going today?

I can understand your frustration here, having the transport expenditure questioned after 10 years seems bewildering. Is the provision of costs for transport recorded in your support plan?

According to the Care and support statutory guidance:

12.35 The direct payment is designed to be used flexibly and innovatively and there should be no unreasonable restriction placed on the use of the payment, as long as it is being used to meet eligible care and support needs.

So I think you have grounds to complain and question this new decision more. Are you aware of the complaints procedure for your local authority? Also, would the support of an advocate be useful to alleviate some of the stress that might accompany this?

I hope you get some clarity soon but in the meantime, we are here should you ever need to chat or vent. Best wishes to both you and your husband.

HEH

@Cher_Scope - thank you so much for your reply and advice. It is highly frustrating, but having spoken to a Scope advisor yesterday and your message today, I am feeling more confident in my ability to say this seems wrong. We have had lots of discussions about my husband's use of taxis in the past with his social worker at the time. At my husband's last review, the social worker agreed that this could be classed as Support Assisted Transport, particularly as my husband uses the same driver the majority of the time, who also gives support with carrying his bags etc.  Although taxis are not a separate support plan objective, it seemed to be agreed that a taxi to achieve my husband's support plan objectives was an allowed expense.  Thank you for providing the extract from the Care and Support Statutory Guidance - this is a very useful document to have access to and I appreciate being guided to correct information resources.  I am aware of the complaints procedure for Oxfordshire County Council and have decided to pursue a complaint with them.  I spoke to the advocacy service (Pohwer) who supported us during my husband's last support plan review this afternoon asking if they were able to offer some guidance on what steps I should take next, and if they were able to offer us any advocacy support again.  They are making contact with a manager to try and get a Care Act referral established and also agreed that I should make a complaint.  So, hopefully, we have the right support being arranged, or at least I am in contact with the right people who can help to take this matter forward.  Thank you, again, for your help and support.

L_Volunteer

Really glad to hear you are feeling more confident in your ability @HEH. Recognising it seems wrong and having the confidence to believe that is a key step in improving things.

Hopefully, these resources will help you to take the action you need to improve things. How are you feeling about everything at the moment and the idea of taking these actions?

Hope these actions combined with the right support help to make things better for you and your husband soon. 

Please feel free to let us know how things go and if you need any further support in the meantime. We are all here for you and listening to you