Devon County Council’s Update Statement on Personal Assistants and Direct Payments
This update statement provides information regarding recruiting a Personal Assistant (PA), PA quality/standards, PA conduct, contingency planning, support with managing a Direct Payment, problems in contacting DCC teams and the Direct Payments surplus reclaim process.
- Recruiting a personal assistant (PA)
We are aware that recruitment of PAs can be difficult. For this reason, we have had, until very recently, a PA network on Pinpoint (service directory).
Although Pinpoint has now ceased to exist, people with Direct Payments can still find a list of PAs here: Find a personal assistant (PA) – Adult Social Care | Devon County Council
People with Direct payments can also search for other kinds of support here: Do you need personal care within your own home? Care at home – day services, enabling and personal care | Devon County Council
In addition to this, we provide a ‘PA shout out’ services which matches people with a Direct payment (and self-funders) with available PAs. Carers / individuals can complete a shout out request via the link on our website here: Find a personal assistant (PA) – Adult Social Care | Devon County Council The advert will then go out to approximately 1500 PAs across Devon who are registered with the shout out service. The advertiser will receive responses from those who fit the requirements they have stipulated and who are available at the times requested (although it can be helpful to be flexible over times if possible).
- PA quality / standards
We do recommend that Direct Payments recipients undertake some basic checks on PAs before they recruit. These are outlined on our public webpages: Find a personal assistant (PA) – Adult Social Care | Devon County Council Direct payments recipients should be able to gather the necessary information about the PAs status in relation to DBS, HMRC etc from both their advert and any subsequent interview.
For the last 2 years, Devon has funded a PA market development programme with Community catalysts, designed to help establish new PAs in the market but also to support existing PAs to improve their services. This programme introduces quality standards for PAs, known as the ‘Doing it Right Standards’. Direct payments recipients may encounter a PA who is able to evidence they work to those standards, or equivalent.
- PA conduct
While we appreciate it can sometimes be frustrating finding the right PA, we would advise Direct payments recipients to report any serious issues / misconduct to the Disclosure and Barring service, as per our policy: Self-directed support (direct payments) policy – Adult Social Care | Devon County Council
- Contingency planning
We recommend that Direct payments recipients develop a Contingency plan, as part of their arrangement, which covers such things as unplanned PA absence. This is outlined in the Direct payment T’s and C’s: Direct Payment Agreement – terms and conditions – Adult Social Care | Devon County Council It is worth noting that, while we would always recommend that emergency cover arrangements are made in advance, submitting a PA shout out request form (as a back-up plan) may also help Direct Payments recipients with last minute cover emergencies, as responses from PAs are normally received quite quickly.
- Support with managing a Direct Payment
We appreciate there are a number of administrative requirements that come with a Direct Payment. To help Direct Payment recipients to manage the arrangement, they can access Direct Payments Support Services from Disability Focus (or equivalent), who will help with financial administration (payments and calculations – previously known as ‘Managed Accounts’) and /or payroll only support. If the Direct Payment recipient plans to use a PA, we also make provision within the personal budget for the purchase of Employer’s Liability Insurance (which normally comes with a 247 employment helpline). They also have access to a pre-paid card account for managing their funds (Adult’s) or a Virtual Wallet (children’s)
- Problems in contacting teams
DCC have offered an initial contact number for members of the public for a number of years (0345 1551 007). In June 2023 this number had three options added to it, this ensured members of the public get to speak to someone in their own area. All concerns are dealt with at the point of the call being answered. If a person has a problem with their Direct Payment they can call the single published number or the local Care Direct Plus Centres directly. There is a contact us section on the DCC webpages
https://www.devon.gov.uk/adult-social-care/devon-social-care/contact-us/ which provides further information.
- Direct Payments surplus reclaim process
Adult Social Care wrote to all recipients of Direct Payments in September. The communication was sent via email where an email address was held and if no email address then there was a letter sent to the persons home. The communication outlined the process that Adult Social Care was implementing regarding reclaiming unspent monies. The process has ensured that everyone is left with eight weeks non-Respite monies plus an additional 12 months for Respite (if applicable) and the reclaim is only for anything above this. Each recipients was offered the opportunity to contact DCC prior to the first reclaim if they had any concerns about the process or wanted to understand what that meant for them. We actively engaged with all those who took the opportunity. An impact assessment has been completed and published on the DCC webpages for the process.