How It Works

Self Directed Support is a new way of working. You will know how much money you are entitled to early on in the process.You can use your money flexibly, creatively and in a way that makes sense to the way that you want to be supported.You will have more control over who provides your support and the way it is organised.

Assessment
You will need an assessment to find out if you are eligible for support from Lancashire County Council. You will then be offered an Individual Budget. There will be a financial assessment to determine if you will need to pay a contribution towards the cost of your support, the same as if services are provided.

What is an Individual Budget?
It is an amount of money that is allocated to you to spend on supports that make sense to the way you wish to live your life. It allows you to have more control over who provides the support you need and how this is organised.

What is the first step towards an Individual Budget?
The first step is to complete a self-rating questionnaire. You can complete this on your own or with help from others. It asks straight forward questions about your current abilities and areas where support is needed. The questionnaire is then checked by the community team to confirm that they have all the information there to determine what your indicative budget will be. It is important to understand that at this stage the budget is indicative and will only be agreed once a support plan has been developed

What is a Support Plan?
A Lancashire Support Planning Booklet and Template has been developed to help you with Support Planning. It asks you what is important to you, who are the important people in your life and what you want to achieve with the support you organise. It is individual to you and helps those who support you to understand what you need and will be a way of keeping track of how you are getting on. The support plan will clearly show how your budget is being spent and must demonstrate that your needs are being met in broad terms, that your plan is legal and that you are safe.

What can I spend my Individual Budget on?
You must use your Individual Budget to pay for support that meets your needs, as agreed in your support plan. This can include formal and informal support. We can help you to explore what some of these supports might be. Your support will be reviewed but in the meantime if you want to deviate from the plan you will need to check it out first.

The Steps
Indicative Budget –you will complete the self-rating questionnaire. On completion of the support plan and following validation you will be informed of your indicative budget.

Plan Support – there are different ways you can do this. You can do this for yourself, you can do this with help from family and friends, with the support provider, an independent broker or with someone from the community team.

Agree the Support Plan - Once the plan has been completed it will need to be agreed by a panel of people usually from social services and sometimes from the local primary care trust. Once your support plan has been agreed arrangements will need to be made to manage the budget.

Manage the Individual Budget – there are a number of ways you can do this and there will be support to help you decide which is the best way for you. Generally it could be yourself, you can do this with help from family and friends, with the support provider, an independent broker or with someone from the community team.

Organise Support - This is making sure that the people who are part of your plan, who are responsible for assisting you in the way you are supported, know exactly what it is they are doing and make sure they support you in the best way possible.

Live your life - This is ensuring that you live your life in a way that makes sense to you and to make sure that you achieve the things you have set out to achieve within your support plan

Review - Making sure that the plan is working for you, that you are using your budget as agreed in the support plan and living the life that you set out to live.