Living My Life, My Way
Living my life, my way, means that everyone eligible for social care services can live their lives as they wish. The information below and the links on the left provide information on how Staffordshire County Council and its partners are making this happen.
Personalisation - It's all about you living your life, your way
Personalisation is about you being able to live your life, your way. It is about giving you more choice, flexibility and control over your life and the way services should respond to you, instead of you having to fit in with them.
It's about looking at your strengths and preferences and the network of support and resources available to you, to collaboratively plan your care. Personalisation reinforces the idea that you are best placed to know what you want and need to live your life.
Personalisation will enable you to live your own life as you wish, confident that services are high quality, safe and allow you to meet your own aspirations, needs for independence, wellbeing and dignity.
How will we deliver Personalisation in Staffordshire?
In order for us to deliver Personalisation we are working closely with our partners in the council, the NHS, the independent sector, care providers voluntary organisations, community groups and the residents of Staffordshire to shape the future of our care system.
In Staffordshire we are working to.
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Increase choice and self direction for customer. We want to support you to direct your care so that you can meet your needs, wants and aspirations.
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Make information and services more accessible. We are working to ensure that our services and information are easily accessible to all people.
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Empowerment of service users and carers. We want all citizens in Staffordshire to have a voice when it comes to the way we deliver services.
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Improved customer experience. We are developing a Personalised Care Pathway which will provide a streamlined approach to care services and will deliver the right services, to the right people at the right time.
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Elimination of duplication. Through the Personalised Care Pathway, we want to enable staff to concentrate of delivering a high quality service, not spend time on paperwork and form filling.
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Personalised care. We are working to ensure all care packages will be tailored to individual need and will include choice where possible.
Why this change?
The drivers for these changes include the white paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (2006) which set a clear goal for care services delivered by the NHS and local government to be appropriate and personal to each individual.
In 2007, Putting People First (HM Government, 2007) outlined plans which stated that all users of social care services should have access to a ‘personal budget’ in order for them to purchase the services required to keep them healthy and safe and which will meet their identified outcomes. The Putting People First programme ended in March 2011 and has been replaced by Think Local Act Personal|, a sector-wide partnership in place to drive Personalisation and community support.
The Think Local Act Personal Website| is a useful resource with the latest developments, practice examples and research from across the country.
How is Staffordshire adopting Personalisation?
Staffordshire have purchased a suite of new Social Care Assessment tools from a company called FACE|. This suite of assessments has been adopted by a number of local authorities and is designed to meet all the national indicators required.
Your assessment will be completed by an assessor who has been trained in the use of the form and will form the basis of your care pathway as detailed below.
The ‘Care Pathway’
If you are struggling and feel you would benefit from an assessment, you can make a referral to your local area office yourself or a family member or friend can make a referral for you using either our freephone number 0300 111 8000 or another method on the contact us page|. You could also be referred by another professional such as your GP.
Please note this care pathway is designed for people who have a learning disability, physical health issue or who are over the age of 65. If you have a mental health issue or substance misuse issue, this pathway does not currently apply however we are working in making your pathways much more personalised too. More information on services for people with mental health and substance misuse issues in Staffordshire can be found at staffordshirementalhealth.info|
The Duty Officer will establish your needs and refer you to an appropriate team where you will be allocated a worker to complete your assessment.
Assessment: Finding out my budget
An assessor will visit you, often in your own home. You can invite anyone you wish to be with you when you have your assessment.
The assessment will generate your ‘Indicative Budget’ (IB) which is a monetary amount based on your needs. This is the amount of money we think it will cost to meet your needs. It will be used to purchase social care services to meet your outcomes.
You will not be instantly awarded your indicative budget. You will go through a process of Support Planning to show how the budget will be spent. If your care needs can be met at a cost lower than your indicative budget, you will receive the amount that will meet your needs. If you are not able to be meet your needs and maintain your wellbeing in a safe way with the amount awarded, you may be awarded a higher amount. The actual amount of money you receive is called your Personal Budget.
Your Indicative and Personal Budgets are not lifelong amounts of money. The amount you receive will change as your needs change. If you regain some of your independence through good quality support, your budget will go down, if you develop more difficulties and your needs increase, your budget will increase.
Outcomes will also be identified at the point of assessment. These will be aims and ambitions that you want to achieve and the support that you require in order to reach them. Examples of these could be “I want to be part of the community again and meet people in a similar situation to me” or “I want to be able to remain in my own home independently.”
Support Planning: How will I use my Personal Budget?
To decide how your Indicative Budget will be best spent to meet your outcomes, you will go through a process called Support Planning, this process can be completed by yourself, your assessor or a third party acting on your behalf. It is most likely to be a combination of yourself and informal carers working with your assessor.
The Support Plan should identify what is important to you, what you would like to change and achieve, how you would like to be supported and who you would like to support you. The Support Plan will be shared with all parties involved in providing your support, you should ensure you are happy to share this information.
The Support Plan should clearly identify the services you plan to access and the costs associated with these. Your assessor will help you with this.
Your Support Plan will also identify how your personal budget will be managed. This can be through a variety of means:
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Direct Payment. An amount can be deposited in a separate bank account you hold solely for your care needs. You can pay the agencies that provide your care directly or you can employ a Personal Assistant to meet your needs and outcomes. If you are unable to manage your own account or if this will leave you vulnerable, it is possible for a third party to manage this account for you.
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Managed Budget. You can receive care services from agencies contracted by or owned by the council directly, there is no need for a direct payment to be made for their services.
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A combination. It is possible for some elements of your package to be provided by a direct payment and other parts by a managed budget.
Your Support Plan will clearly state how you will remain in control of your life or who you would like to make decisions for you if you are unable to. Your Support Plan could also detail what will need to happen in the event of an emergency such as your informal carer becoming unwell.
The Support Plan will be taken to a management team for approval. This ensures the plan is safe, legal and will meet outcomes effectively.
Once your Support Plan is in place and the services initiated, you are free to live your life, you way!
If you would like to start to develop your own Support Plan, there is a template for you to use. There is no need to fill it in completely, but would be really helpful if you start to think about some of the areas of the plan and things you would like to change.
My Support Plan|(66.2KB)
Review:
A worker will review your package of support soon after it has commenced and then periodically after this. This ensures your needs have not increased or decreased and you are receiving the appropriate level of support for you. If a service is not working for you, it will be your opportunity to look into other options. All the parties involved in supporting you should be involved in the review or have the opportunity to make their views known.
Your review will look at your outcomes and possible identify new outcomes if your original outcomes have been met.
You can request a review of your support package at any time if you feel the support in place is not working for you.
Further information
We have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions| which may answer your query, including a Glossary of Terms| to help you with any words you may not understand.
If you still have a question, comment or query, please email us at mylifemyway@staffordshire.gov.uk|
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