FAQs

If you think you, or someone you care for would benefit from social care support then you should call East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and provide them with the information they need to decide if you may be eligible for assistance.

The Health and Social Care Partnership can refuse self-directed support if a person is assessed as not requiring any social care services.

Every Local Authority has a budget to provide social care to the individuals in their locality who need it most and they must ensure that this budget is administered fairly. The Scottish Government’s guidance on Self-directed Support states that local authorities must be sure that the resources they allocate to a person are sufficient to meet their assessed needs.

If you disagree with the assessment of your eligibility for social care support then you should use the East Renfrewshire complaint process to appeal the decision.

https://eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/article/6578/HSCP-Complaints-procedure

A social worker/assistant will have a conversation with you or your carer and assess your need, to do this they use an eligibility criteria known as Supporting People Framework. Once the assessment has been completed, they will advise whether or not you are eligible for support.

This framework operates under four categories:

• Low
• Moderate
• Substantial
• Critical

At this time only those with substantial or critical needs are eligible for financial support, however it’s important to note that there should be (non-financial) assistance available locally for those falling into the low and moderate categories.

Parents of, or those with parental responsibility for, children under 16 (or in some circumstances under 18).

Guardians/Attorneys of adults over 16 if the person with assessed need has no capacity to make a decision to receive Self-Directed Support.

There is no new money for SDS so the money comes from the existing HSCP budget for social care.

You will be accountable. The Support Plan and the Individual Contract together say what you agree to do with the money – they form a contract. Any big changes must be agreed with the social work. Please ensure you have a copy of your completed assessment. This will include a list of your outcomes (goals) and should be used to direct how you can manage your SDS allocation. HSCP should audit accounts annually and at those times you may be asked to provide evidence of spend.

No. Receiving money for support does not affect benefits.

No. The money you get for support is the same if you are working or not working.

If your planned spend does not fit with your agreed outcomes (goals) you will need to discuss things with social work. Changes need to be agreed in advance

If you want to employ a family member HSCP must agree to this arrangement. You should think very carefully about employing a family member who lives in the same house as you, as it will be difficult to separate the times when they are your employee and when they are delivering unpaid care.

Self-Directed Support has been developed as a way of giving individuals more flexibility, choice and control over the support services they receive. However, local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that the resources allocated to an individual are used to meet their agreed personal outcomes. If you are attempting to make a purchase which the local authority feel will not help towards achieving your agreed outcomes then they may refuse this purchase.

If you feel that this decision is unfair and does meet outcomes, then you should contact HSCP to appeal the decision and discuss further.

In implementing Self-Directed Support, Local Authorities must comply with their duty of care under section 12A of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Local Authorities must be sure that the resources they allocate to a person are sufficient to meet their needs and any provision or assistance should be based on a detailed and outcomes-focused social care assessment. Any change in an individual’s support should be clearly explained to them.

The Self-Directed Support Act does not affect the level of resource provided to a person under each of the four options and there is no single approach to resource allocation prescribed on the face of the Act, nor any single method recommended by Scottish Government. However, local authorities must ensure that the approach taken to the allocation of resources is both fair and transparent. If you disagree with the budget allocated to you following your assessment then you may wish to appeal the decision using East Renfrewshire’s complaint process (https://eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/article/6578/HSCP-Complaints-procedure)

Not necessarily. If you move to another council you will be asked to complete an assessment. Each council will assess your level of support in the local community care context and may therefore ask for a different level of contribution or offer a different level of support.

If you are not happy with any action, decision or apparent failing of the local council you should use the local council complaint procedure as detailed above. You may find that an independent mediator can help solve the difficulty. If this is not successful then you can go to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman who will look into your complaint independently.

If deemed as being eligible for SDS, it is important to look at which option best suits your needs. Direct payments are not suitable for everyone and many people are completely satisfied with receiving services that are arranged by their local authority. However there are a lot of people who could really benefit from having choice and control over the support they receive, such as having support staff visit them at times of their choosing or enjoying the consistency of care that can come from employing their own personal assistants or even the flexibility of using their budget to purchase services that meet needs more creatively and individually.

The SDS Forum can talk you through the options in more detail and help you reach a decision around what may suit you best.

Self-directed support offers you much more flexibility, but managing it is also a responsibility. An important part of SDS is that a person can take on as much or as little responsibility they want depending on the options they choose. You can get the help and support you. Your local support service is usually the first point of contact for this.

There is no guarantee that any kind of support will work for someone. This is no different with Self-Directed Support. But there is a lot of flexibility with Self-Directed Support, so you can make big changes. If having this kind of control really doesn’t suit someone, they can use the ordinary council arrangements of care planning and commissioning