Hi, my name is Rosierosie! Wondering if I should try to apply for direct payments for my step son

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Rosierosie

My stepson receives some funding from Social Services to pay for a session at Headway.

Unfortunately the session he attends has been cancelled without any notice and he doesn't want to attend any other sessions Headway provide. 

I'm wondering if I should try to apply for direct payments so I can pay for another group or for a PA to meet the objectives of the care plan? He has only just in the passed month had his new care plan completed.

I would like to employ someone we know, who has worked in social care as a PA. Would they need to have certain qualifications or just declare any monies received as income?

I'm wondering how difficult it is to get Direct Payments and what happens if I can't get something in place quickly. 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Ross_Alumni

Good morning @RosieRosie and welcome to the community, it's lovely to see you join us.

Thank you for telling us about your step son, it's a shame that the Headway  session was cancelled at such short notice. Was there a reason given for the cancellation?

There is a really helpful page here on the Citizens Advice website about using direct payments to pay for care, it gives details about several aspects that you may want to consider when it comes to DPs. Scope also has a page that provides information about managing your direct payments budget, and you can find that here.

It's good that your step son's care plan is recent and up to date, how did you find the process of getting the plan put together? 

I hope you enjoy taking part in the online community, if you want to have a look around and get involved in some other discussion groups, I have included below a few notable pages:

• The virtual coffee lounge which is one of our categories, in which we play games and talk about general subjects such as hobbies and interests
• The recent discussions page, which shows an overview of everything happening across the community
• The categories page, which shows a full list of discussion groups on the community

If you have any questions at all then don’t hesitate to ask.