Jade talks about experiences of direct payments, how it feels, rates of pay, the lack of freedom to manage it, and what happens when a social worker suggests things in her support plan need to change.

um that's how it's sort of meant to work, but I don't think that's how it works in theory. And interestingly, when I was given the rate of pay in that exact meeting that I was talking about, um, he was shocked that my P a was being paid the rate they were IE. They had no clue what PAS are being paid in their own county. So there is an upper rate IE being most they'll pay however you can

Then, um, that that isn't how it's meant to be. And some social workers recognise that. So, um, the idea is they're meant to pay what you need, not This is what you get

Tough luck, IE. If you're not, if you're putting that rate of pay out and you're struggling to get a P a, um, they need to, you know, look at that rate and change it and take into account things like complex needs or or difficulties in that area recruiting. And some of those people have then had those increases put into place

But what I gleaned from the conversation I had is the Council had no way of, um recording what people were paying so over the years there's become all these different rates. And, um, it was interesting because one of the things they said to me was that it wasn't their business to know what we were paying our PAS yet. Um, I had a, um but yeah, every year they, um about about two years ago, they set up a new, um, team within direct payments at my local council whose job was basically to order everyone's direct payment

And, um, they And for the first time, I came up for this this year and they sent me a letter with a list of all the things I needed to provide as an employer, some of them completely reasonable, some of them completely not reasonable. Including, um, one of the things was a copy of every contract I have with my P and just a reminder we directly employ our PAS. So the employment between myself and my P A is absolutely no one else's business

Yet there was a threat in this letter that if we did not send them this, they would be stopping our direct payment, which is really not legal. But that's what it said, Um, and yet then, in another meeting with another member of staff of the same organisation, you know, they're saying things like, Oh, it's not our business to know what you're paying your P a which to me would be something that they should know because they need to set those rates. Um, so it does seem to get a very mixed up view of, um, what each team is doing, which I think is quite reflective across councils as a whole

Um, something that comes up quite often is that, um you know, when direct payments were set up, most councils had a direct payment team and they knew direct payments inside and out. They knew the care act legislation. I'm not saying it was the case for every council, but most councils had sort of someone in charge

And over the years, that has very much eroded away. Those teams have been let go or redistributed into the team. And so what happens is you have, um, staff that are doing lots of different things, and direct payments is just one of those

And so they don't actually know the care act. They don't know how it works. And I've had social workers say to me they never offer direct payments because they can't be bothered to do the paperwork

And yes, they were that honest about it. So it takes people knowing about direct payments to say to them, I want one rather than them looking at your circumstances and saying This fits in with you And I think that's something we really need to get back to each council having that specialist team that that know how they work and can really, you know, use their imagination. I think that's what a lot of us want that flexibility and imagination back again

It's not necessarily about our budgets being increased. It's about doing better with what we're given, Um, and that just isn't there at the moment. It's just been very much lost over time, and I fear it's gonna keep going that way

You know, as as financial pressures come down from above, it seems like direct payments is often the easy target to hit, Um, to try and, you know, reduce some of those budgets instead of looking at. How can that person have a better life? And that's what really frightens me at the moment.

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