Contact
Individual Budgets Team
Centre for Independent, Integrated, Inclusive Living
42-48 Parsloes Avenue
Dagenham
RM9 5NU
Email: individualbudgets@lbbd.gov.uk|
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"Individual budgets are designed to provide you with greater choice and control over the support arrangement that you receive.
It's an opportunity to tailor-support to suit your lifestyle, not tailoring your lifestyle to suit your support.
This video will demonstrate just how easy it is to take up individual budgets and hopefully answer many of the questions you may have around the process."
"An individual budget is a new way of providing a social care package for a person who has been assessed as needing services.
It really offers them choice and control on the services that they need to meet their care needs and really puts them at the centre of the planning process.
They offer people a clear indication of how much money will be available for providing their social care.
In the traditional package you would be simply seen by social care, you would be seen by the Independent Living Fund, you would be seen by supporting people, so you would end up having 3 or 4 assessments and then money goes at all different times in your account.
Whereas, with an individual budget, you just get one cash allocation and you haven't got to be seen by 4 different people.
At the moment in Barking and Dagenham we are working with people with a physical or sensory impairment, older people and adults with a learning disability and over the next couple of months individual budgets will be rolled out to people with mental health issues.
Traditionally, when somebody needs services, an agency tells you what they can provide for you, but as it is a buyers market and you have this cash allocation, you are able to negotiate prices, negotiate the services that you want to take on board and really create a pick and mix of services that suit your needs and not the needs of the agency.
An example would be, that somebody might come in at half past 7 to get you up, but you might not want to get up till 9 o' clock!
But that's the time that the agency has allocated for someone to come in to get you up and they can't move that because they've got 15 other clients to do before 10 o'clock. With an individual budget, that freedom there is that your the buyer, if you want to get up on a Sunday morning at 11 o clock, you tell the agency that you want the person there at 10 to 11 and not to arrive at half past 7 on a Sunday morning.
And that's the difference, that's where the empowerment comes from, as it puts you, as the buyer, in the driving seat."
"Hi I am Penny. Before starting using individual budgets, my life was very different.
It was difficult for me to follow my interests, such as going to the cinema, swimming or even going to the pub.
Since going onto individual budgets, I've chosen an assistant who has the same Interests as me.
Now I can go out when I want to. I'm socializing and making new friends, just like any other 23 year old."
It is not as complicated as you think and there is support if you need it.
"When you take up an individual budget you will have to go through the normal assessment process, but at the same time you will be asked to fill in a resource allocation tool which is a form of a self-assessment questionnaire.
Out of this self-assessment questionnaire, you will be allocated an amount of money and you will have this amount of money to plan your own support.
Individual budgets can be made of various funding streams.
Barking and Dagenham has been working with a number of government departments to look at different funding streams that can be made available to extend a person's budget.
You are in control of your own care money. This puts you into a position to shop around and negotiate best prices with service providers.
People who have taken up an individual budget, we try to support as best as we can.
Currently we employ 3 support brokers, whose job it is to navigate you through the individual budgets process.
However if you don't want to take up their support you can go through the process with family members, or friends or even your care manager, the choice is yours."
"My name is Eli.
Before I started using the individual budgets I never accepted their support package because I didn't want to loose my independence.
Not accepting the package was… meant really having falls in the bathroom, burning myself in the kitchen with hot water.
Definitely taking the individual budget was a great improvement in my life.
I don't know how I managed before.
It was like been in the dark ages and coming into modern life."
This it's not true. Individual budgets allows you to decide what to do with the money that you've been allocated for care, rather then someone else choose for you.
"I see individual budgets in the future as a real opportunity. An opportunity not to be missed.
The individual budgets process puts the person at the centre of the decision-making. It also gives the individual the opportunity to have control over the services that they undertake and the way in which they spend their money.
If someone was thinking of taking up an individual budget, I would say to them give it a go.
If that person decides that individual budgets isn't for them, then they have the choice to revert back to how they were receiving their money before, perhaps under direct payments.
The government is committed, If successful, in rolling the pilot out nationally.
In Barking and Dagenham we built very much on the progress that has been made by the pilot.
The amount of people that have taken up the option, have been really, really positive about the outcome that it has made and the differences to their lives.
And for me, as someone who could be a potential service user, it is also something which would really excites me for the future."
"My name is Olufunso Akiwumi.
Religion is a very important part of my life. Before taking up individual budgets, I was unable to attend church as much as I would want. Individual budgets flexibility means that I can change my support plan as and when necessary and then use the additional money to attend church and some other functions?
It has meant that I'm living the life that I want.
"Surely, Goodness and Love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever, Amen."
You can get help from family, friends, or even a support broker, whatever you fill comfortable with.
"If somebody is unsure about taking up an individual budget, then contact one of the Brokers who can support you through the process.
Once you started the process, if you are unhappy and you want to stop it at any time, there is no problem with doing that.
It's not a sign on the dotted line and you are committed. It's not as difficult as it looks.
The self-assessment questionnaire has been designed to make it as simple as possible and it involves really just filling in tick boxes and the complicated stuff is done behind the scenes with the resource allocation tool, but actually filling in that form is relatively simple.
But it gives you an opportunity to really think about what you want to do with your life, where you are now and where you want to be, wishes and aspirations for your life as a disabled person."
"It's your money. It's up to you how you spend it.
This video is just an introduction to individual budgets and there are so many ways to find out more. Below are the contact details to do just that."
Individual Budgets Team
Centre for Independent, Integrated, Inclusive Living
42-48 Parsloes Avenue
Dagenham
RM9 5NU
Email: individualbudgets@lbbd.gov.uk|
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