Individual Budget / Self Directed Support

Steps to Self Directed Support

Getting an individual budget and using it for Self Directed Support is split into 6 simple steps:

Step 1 Your Individual Budget

LCC will issue you with a Self Rating Questionnaire, for you to complete. Once this has been completed it will tell you how much of a budget you will be entitled to. This is known as an Indicative Budget, as it is still subject to change.

Step 2 Make and Agree Your Plan

The next step is to make and agree a plan. This will say how you will spend your money on things that will improve your quality of life. You may want to make the plan on your own or get help. You can get help from friends, family, an agency like Complete Care Services or your social worker. When you make your plan you should consider:

• What works and doesn’t work in your life at the moment
• What’s important to you and what do you want to do (your aspirations)
• What support you want
• Ideas about how to make things happen

Once your plan is complete, it needs to be verified by a social worker.

Step 3 Organising Your Money

Once your plan has been agreed, you need to decide who is going to manage your money and pay your care bills. When deciding this you have the following options:

• You can manage it yourself. You will need a separate bank account to stop the money getting mixed up.
• A friend or relative
• A broker, this is someone you pay such as Complete Care Services, see brokerage page for further information.
• Social Services
• A Trust

Step 4 Organising Your Self Directed Support

There are two parts to organising your support:

• Deciding the kind of support you want and deciding who you want to provide the support (for example, Complete Care Services)
• Arranging and managing the support

You can do this yourself, or of you prefer you have the option of using a friend, family member, or Complete Care Services to assist you with this. These are not the only options available to you, more detail is available on www.in-control.co.uk

Step 5  Living Life

You can use the services of a professional Company such as Complete Care Services, or make your own appointment, or even buy things that will help you in your life.

Step 6 Review

You have to show Lancashire County Council that you have used your money properly. You can also look to see if it is working for you.

Call Complete Care Services on any of our office numbers now to discuss your individual budget and see how we can help you with self directed support.