Last updated at 11:06, Thursday, 26 November 2009

Andrew Clarke on a new scheme helping people take control of their lives

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

A MAJOR step forward in the way adults receive social care has taken place in Cumbria.

From Monday last week, Cumbria County Council has been offering ‘personal budgets’ to its adult social care service users. This means older people with social care needs and over-18s with physical and learning disabilities are able to take far greater control and have far more options in how they spend the money they’re entitled to.

For some, it could mean deciding to use part of their care package to pay for a carer to take them to a football match or bingo rather than visiting a day centre or receiving a home visit from a carer.

This would still get them out and about, ending their isolation, and would have the added benefit of allowing them to pursue an interest and make friends. Others may decide to continue to have the same home or day care as they do now, but there is far more flexibility in the new system.

Customers can have as much or as little control as they wish. The county council can still hold an individual’s personal budget and arrange services for them, or they can provide direct payments and let the individual control their own care package. There can even be a combination of the two.

Councillor Eddie Martin, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member for adult social care, said: “It’s a win-win situation. We’re improving the quality of the service, making better use of resources, and giving more choice and control to service users. This will allow them to make their own decisions on the best way to meet their own needs and live as independently as possible. We’re putting the people receiving the care at the centre of the decisions about what they want to achieve in life, how and where they want to live and what social care and support they need to enable them to do this.”

ANNE BRADSHAW contracted polio at the age of two and had her right leg amputated when she was 10. She had a prosthetic leg and was able to live a full, active life, working for the health service for 22 years. She then ran her own chiropody business until she suffered post-polio syndrome at the age of 42.

Since then, Anne has been living with chronic pain. She has lost strength and movement in her back and is unable to walk.

She was cared for by her husband, Stan, but when he was diagnosed with leukaemia, they asked for a carer to help. The care agency provided nine hours of care a week which Anne said took a great deal of pressure off her husband.

This worked for 10 years, but when Stan died, Anne needed more care.

The county council’s Adult Social Care reassessed her needs and her care package was increased to 28 hours per week. Anne was also able to top up to fund more care through the Independent Living Fund.Her main worry was who would walk the family dog, Oliver, her close companion.

Anne is a very active member of the local disability forum and was a local councillor. As chair of Copeland Disability Forum, she knew about the direct payment scheme which would enable her to arrange her own care.

Her social worker, Angela, explained what direct payments they could offer her. She did not want to change her carers but was able to employ them directly. She says this has given her freedom of choice.

Anne, now 53, has been able to employ her sister-in-law, who lives nearby, and another carer of her choice.Through direct payments, she has also been able to include the walking and care of her dog into her carers’ job descriptions. She has also been able to employ a carer who can drive and help her accompany her elderly mother on hospital appointments, shopping or other activities.Anne says it has enabled her to do things she would have done for her mother if she had not developed post-polio syndrome.

The direct payments are organised through a payroll system provided by Disability Association Carlisle and Eden. Anne sends the carers’ worksheets each month to DaCE and two days later she receives wage slips, tax and national insurance bills and DaCE fee. Anne says the system is very simple and easy to use.

ANDY KAY, 26, suffered head injuries in a road accident when he was two-and-a-half years old which left him with a paralysed left side and learning difficulties.

He now lives in a self-contained ground floor flat attached to his mother’s house. He has carers for 21 hours during the week and spends the weekends with his father.

Andy didn’t have a social worker until he was 19. He attended school in Whitehaven and then college in Lancaster for a three-year course on living independently. He was then appointed a social worker.

His family lived in a rural location near Whitehaven. When Andy completed his course and returned home, there was nowhere to continue learning independent living and no further education places or accommodation available. Andy was offered daycare which he attended for 12 months.

Andy didn’t like going to daycare, which was for people up to 65 years old. Andy’s mother, Sandra, was looking for an alternative which met her son’s needs. She gave up her job to become Andy’s full-time carer, 24 hours a day.

In 2005, Andy had a new social worker, Paul who was able to tell the family about direct payments.

Paul visited Andy to carry out an assessment. The assessment highlighted that Andy needed more care to help him live more independently. At the same time, Sandra was looking for a new home which could provide a separate, independent living area for Andy. She was looking for somewhere nearer Whitehaven where Andy could have easier access to services.

In 2007, Andy and Sandra moved into a former shop, which had been converted into a flat and had family living accommodation attached. This provided Andy with his own living space, complete with kitchen and bathroom.

Andy’s assessment was approved and he was allocated 13 hours care Monday to Wednesday and nine hours care for Thursdays and Fridays from a local service provider.

The carers need to be able to drive to take Andy out in his car. He now enjoys visiting local places such as St Bees, going shopping and eating out.

Andy has an alarm button which connects to his mother’s house next door, and she is able to help him with his morning and night time routine.

Self-directed support has enabled Andy to receive more care and gives his mother a break. Before the support plan was in place, she was unable to leave Andy.

The direct payments Andy receives enable him to live a semi-independent life. With his carers, he goes to a club at the local theatre on Tuesday evenings, where they have a disco and bingo. He has recently won several trophies for his domino playing at the Disabled Sports Club where he goes on Thursdays.

Most of Andy’s care plan has been created by Adult Social Care, working with Andy and his mum. Sandra did a course on how to create a life plan. She was able to put everything she learnt on the course into action and Andy’s assessment carried out in 2007 was one of the first to be completed.

MARK OSTLE, 39, suffers from anxiety attacks, sleep deprivation and has difficulty doing things for himself. After the death of his mother in 1998, Mark moved in with his brother David and his wife, Ann who lived in a rural location. David said they did not fully appreciate Mark’s needs until he came to live with them, and they contacted Adult Social Care to find out what support was available.

The family realised that they needed a house with more rooms, to give Mark his own space. They had a three-bedroom house built with additional rooms downstairs and created a bedsit for Mark in 2002.

Though they were happy living together, David was concerned about Mark’s future. It was also difficult for Mark to enjoy a social life, living in a rural location with little public transport.

After 10 years of living with his brother and sister-in-law, Mark said he did want to move on. When self directed support was being introduced into Cumbria’s Learning Disability Services, social worker Paul sent David some details. David looked to see if self directed support could be used to plan for Mark’s future as it would give a clear indication of the amount of funding he would be entitled to.

Mark agreed to this approach and Paul arranged a life plan after a full assessment of Mark’s needs. The life plan identified Mark wanted support to live independently.

Self directed support identified how much funding could be made available for Mark. David and Paul then designed a service for Mark and his old school friend Ian to move into a house together. Funding was agreed for a two person package, and a new house near to David’s home was identified. Mark liked the new house and wanted to go ahead with the move, but his friend felt it was too far away from town and that he would be isolated.

The family and social worker Paul then looked to see if there would be enough funding to support Mark on his own in the house. A local service provider agreed to take on Mark’s support package and this was then organised. A place became available in a small residential home for people with learning disabilities in Whitehaven. Mark visited the bedsit accommodation in the house. This had a communal kitchen and reception rooms and was staffed by carers full time. He liked the upper floor room and the cost of this was within the amount of funding for Mark’s support.

After he had arranged for decorators to put up his choice of wall paper and had new furniture delivered, Mark moved into his own bed-sit in the centre of town. Shortly after he moved in, the home deregistered allowing Mark to have a more individual support package.

Since moving into his new home, Mark has started attending Learn Direct courses in the town three days a week and is hoping to get a work placement at a garden centre in Egremont.

Mark loves to play snooker and pool, and his new home is next to the snooker hall where he has become a member. He now signs his brother into the club so they can play snooker together.

After moving into his new home, staff from the service provider were able to work with Mark to help him find his way around town, and help him develop his road safety skills and get around independently. He now has many friends in Whitehaven, including other residents in his house and other people supported by the provider.

He is planning a week in London, to see Grease with a resident from another home. He has also been on holiday to Blackpool with his carer, and enjoys a very active social life with his family and friends.

David regularly visits Mark in his new home, and says he can now sleep at nights knowing Mark has the care and support he needs now and in the future. They chose their provider because they were a local non-profit making organisation they knew and trusted.

The life plan and assessment enabled the family to find out how much funding could be made available to meet Mark’s needs. Knowing the finances available, the family, with help from social worker Paul, were able to make choices.

Although the original plan for Mark to move in with a friend in a house near his brother did not work out, they were able to use the funding available to gain a full care package.

The provider is paid directly by Adult Social Care, which both Mark and David prefer. Neither have to worry about organising paying any bills.

VINCE HANLON, 48, has learning difficulties and has suffered from mood swings and depression. Four years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes which does not require insulin injections.

He has been living in bedsit accommodation with shared facilities for 11 years. Staff support is provided during office hours.

Vince wanted to move into his own flat, and found it difficult sharing a home with other people. Before moving into the bedsit accommodation, he had lived with his mother, and had never lived alone.

He did not like having to tell people where he was going when he went out and the sharing facilities led Vince into arguments with others.

He said he always wanted to live in the town centre, where he had spent his childhood, though was a little frightened of making the move. His brother, Tony, was also concerned about him living alone without support. A member of the team at his accommodation told Vince she believed he could live on his own, with support. His social worker, Paul, told him about the new self-directed support scheme which he could use to hire carers to help him.

Together, Vince and Paul did an assessment and worked out how many hours of support could be made available each week. Vince was told that this would be available to him so long as he could show that the time was being used to meet his assessed needs.

Vince said his brother Tony was concerned about him living alone in the town but when he found a ground floor flat for private rent, Tony helped him arrange carers through a local provider. With the support of the carers and Tony, Vince moved his things into the flat. At first he spent just the daytime there and returned to his old bedsit in the evenings, to get used to his new home.

Vince said he soon got used to living alone. Since moving into his flat 12 months ago he enjoys having his own space and his own front door key. The landlady has known Vince and Tony all their lives and they have a good friendship.

After a job cleaning at the local swimming pool and working as a ‘pot’ man at a local pub, Vince is now looking for a new job. His carers go with him to the Jobcentre and he has applied to the local supermarkets for work.

A team of five carers come six days a week, for between one and three hours to help Vince with his household tasks, filling in application forms, contacting the council, visiting the doctors and arranging his benefits.

Vince has a book that each of the carers write in when they have been, noting what Vince wanted and what they have done, so there is continuity of care.

Vince says self directed support has changed his life for the better. His friends and family have commented on how happy he is. Since the move, he has stopped having to take medication for mood swings and depression.

Now well established in his own home, Vince has a busy social life, meeting his friends in town. His brother is very proud of him for being able to live alone.

He knows if he has a problem he just has to telephone the provider who will help him. He also knows that Tony, who lives in town, is also on hand to help.

Vince used part of his budget to employ a support worker to help him to find and apply for accommodation. The same worker was able to help him organise his move.

Once he was living in the flat, which is paid for through housing benefit, he was able to hire carers through the provider. The payment for the care is paid direct by Adult Social Care. Vince receives a monthly statement to show how much of his budget has been spent. Vince says he likes this system because he doesn’t have to worry about sorting out the bills for his carers.

First published at 15:33, Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk