West Midlands Personal Assistant Project
West Midlands Personal Assistant Project
Building the Capacity and Quality of Personal Assistants in the West Midlands
Local Authority Direct Employment Toolkit
Version 2: November 2010
1.The West Midlands Personal Assistant Project
As local authorities drive forward their plans to transform adult social care services, there will be a sharp rise in the take-up of personal budgets, with 30% of eligible service users expected to be in receipt of a personal budget by March 2011. This is expected to create demand for directly employed Personal Assistants as more people take greater control of their individual support plans.
Members of the West Midlands Direct Payments Network were concerned that in meeting the target for personal budgets, there was a significant risk that there would be insufficient numbers of PAs with the requisite skills to provide the support required.To address these concerns Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands has commissioned a project that aims to “support the delivery of the Putting People First agenda by building the capacity and quality of directly employed Personal Assistants in the West Midlands” (the Personal Assistant Project).
One of the key requirements of the project was to produce a “Best Practice Toolkit in relation to the provision of information about PA’s (known as a PA Register) as defined by budget holders”.
2.About the Toolkit
In developing the toolkit, the project has sought to identify, collate and document:
- Guidance and legal advice concerning the role of the Local Authority in building PA capacity, guidance for service users about their responsibilities as employers and guidance in respect of safeguarding issues - aimed at minimising risk and facilitating choice;
- The main barriers to direct employment and a strategy for overcoming those barriers (including examples of good practice and recommendations for further action to address any gaps);
- A business case identifying the opportunities for efficiency, increased supply and demand, enhanced quality of service provision and a fair price for PA support that arise from the development of a PA Register.
The toolkit is intended to be used by local authorities to enhance the offering to service users and PAs in respect of direct employment. It combines the project’s research base with the materials, methods and recommendations that will help to:
Inform service users, carers and PAs about direct employment and the associated issues;
Develop the market for direct employment, through a combination of market-shaping, personal development, professional standards and peer support; and to
Empower service users, carers and PAs to access and take control of their own solutions, through the provision of an Online Marketplace and PA Register.
The toolkit is intended to be presented as an electronic resource library, with a navigation structure aligned to the four themes (research, inform, develop and empower) and is designed to sit within a standard Microsoft Office©filing structure or within an intranet site (e.g. the council’s own intranet or the IEWM site).
The most appropriate audience for the material within the Toolkit is identified in the “Who’s it for?” column, and uses the following key:
SU – service users and their carers
PA – Personal Assistants (or those thinking of becoming a PA)
LA – the local authority and its public, independent, voluntary and community sector partners.
Where material is identified as being relevant to service users, carers or PAs it should be made available in a range of formats and across a number of access channels, including within council websites and, where appropriate, within existing PA Registers.
3.The West Midlands Direct Employment Toolkit
The table below provides a summary of the materials, methods and recommendations included within the Direct Employment Toolkit. A more detailed description (and link to the actual content where possible) is available by following the hyperlinks.
Research / Who’s it for? / Inform / Who’s it for? / Develop / Who’s it for? / Empower / Who’s it for?Putting People First: A shared vision and commitmentto the transformation of Adult Social Care (2007) / LA / About Personal Budgets & Direct Payments / Developing the market for self-directed support / Online Marketplace & PA Register
Making progress with Putting People First: self-directed support / LA / DH Guide to receiving Direct Payments from your council / SU / Regional Market Shaping Workstream / LA / Specification forOnline Marketplace & PA Register / LA
The market for Personal Assistant Register Software / LA / CouncilGuideto Personal Budgets / SU, PA / Care First Careers / SU, PA / Business Case for Online Marketplace & PA Register / LA
At your service: navigating the future market in health and social care / LA / E-learning - Direct Payments / SU, PA / Supporting Micromarket Development / LA / Online Marketplace& PA Register / SU, PA
Employment aspects and workforce implications of Direct Payments / LA / At a Glance 10: Personalisation Briefing- Implications for Carers / SU / The importance of micro-enterprise to a diverse market able to offer personalised services / LA / Shop4Support / SU, PA
ISA Referral Guidance / LA / At a Glance 12: Personalisation Briefing – implications for advocacy workers / SU / At a Glance 15: Personalisation Briefing – Implications for ULOs / LA, PA / PlanmyCare / SU, PA
Guidance on direct payments: for community care, services for carers and children’s services / LA / Personalisation: A Rough Guide / LA, SU, PA / Market Development Workbook / LA / People Places / SU, PA
Progress Measures for the delivery of transforming adult social care services / LA / SCIE TV – Personalisation / SU, PA / Sharing the Learning: user-led organisations action and learning sites 2008-2010 / LA / Sliversof Time / SU, PA
I'm safe because they've been trained correctly / LA / Daysin the Life of a Service User / SU, PA / Carematch / SU, PA
Should we ban brokerage? / LA / Direct Payment Support Organisations / SU / Employer Skills / NAAPS / SU, PA
Shaping caremarkets – a discussion paper / LA / Les’s Story – Audio diary / SU, PA / Employer Training - Becoming a Good Employer / SU / PAPool / SU, PA
Who cares: Who Pays? / LA / Being an Employer / PA Skills / PANet / SU, PA
Getting Started – Guide for Direct PaymentCustomers / SU / Social Care Institute for Excellence Resources / SU, PA / UKPARegister / SU, PA
SCIE People Management Website / SU / Care Skillsbase – website / SU, PA / iCaring / SU, PA
Being the Boss – website / SU, PA / E-learning- PA Induction Training / SU, PA
Employer Toolkit / SU, PA / Skills for Care Training Materials Listing / SU, PA
Quick Guide to Manager Induction Standards / SU / Council Guide to Training for people working in health & social care / SU, PA
Being a PA / Common Induction Standards / PA, LA
GettingStarted – A Guide for PAs / PA
At a Glance 14: Personalisation Briefing – Implications for PAs / PA / Professional Standards
Professional Standards / PA, LA
Managing Information
Information Management Guide / LA / Developing Support for PAs
PA SupportNetwork / PA, LA
Raising Awareness
Raisingthe Profile / LA
Research Tools
Name / Putting People First: A shared vision and commitment to the transformation of Adult Social Care (2007)Description / Protocol setting out the shared commitment, aims and values which will guide the transformation of adult social care.
Owner / HM Government / Target Audience / Local Authorities, service providers
Source /
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Name / Making progress with Putting People First: self-directed support
Description / This paper discusses how councils are approaching the issues and challenges associated with implementing personal budgets. It tackles some common areas of confusion and misinterpretation. It aims to assist councils with their progress in meeting the government’s objective that by 2011 all councils will have made significant steps towards redesign and reshaping their adult social care services in line with Putting People First, including the offer of personal budgets to all eligible people.
Owner / I&DeA, ADASS, LGA (2009) / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source /
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Name / The market for Personal Assistant Register Software
Description / Analysis of the emerging market for PA Register software.
Owner / IEWM / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source / Link to be provided
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Name / At your service: navigating the future market in health and social care
Description / This pamphlet looks at how personal budgets will impact the social and health care market, what prospective budget holders know and think about personal budgets, how they would spend it and what difficulties they envisage. It sets out the likely challenges facing local authorities and service providers in delivering the personalisation agenda and contains recommendations about how to make the transition successfully.
Owner / Demos / J Bartlett (2009) / Target Audience / Local Authorities, care service providers
Source /
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Name / Employment aspects and workforce implications of Direct Payments
Description / Large scale survey of DP recipients, providing stats on numbers and types of people employed and exploring DP recipients' experiences as employers.
Owner / Skills for Care / Target Audience / Local Authorities, social care training providers.
Source /
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Name / ISA Referral Guidance
Description / Summary description of the main provisions of the new Vetting & Barring scheme operated by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), with particular emphasis on the “duty to refer” relevant information about an individual who is engaged in regulated or controlled activity when there is sufficient evidence to support their reasons for withdrawing permission to engage in such activity.
Owner / Independent Safeguarding Authority / Target Audience / Local Authorities, regulated activity providers, personnel suppliers/agencies, Health & Social Care bodies
Source /
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Name / Guidance on direct payments: for community care, services for carers and children’s services
Description / Guide to assist councils with social services responsibilities in making direct payments. It applies to both children’s and adult services. It replaces the 2003 guidance, and has been written to reflect legislative changes that extend direct payments to previously excluded groups.
Owner / Department of Health / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source /
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Name / Progress Measures for the delivery of transforming adult social care services
Description / Report describing the five key priorities for transformation, setting out the interim milestones to be reached by March 2011.
Owner / ADASS, DH, LGA / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source /
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Name / I'm safe because they've been trained correctly.
Description / Report exploring the attitudes of direct payment employers in the West Midlands towards the training and development of Personal Assistants.
Owner / Skills for Care / Target Audience / Local Authorities, service providers, social care training providers
Source /
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Name / Should we ban brokerage?
Description / Discussion paper which aims to encourage more thinking and discussion about the development of a support structure for Self-Directed Support.
Owner / The Centre for Welfare Reform / Target Audience / Local Authorities, care service providers
Source /
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Name / Shaping care markets – a discussion paper
Description / Research paper that draws from current local authority good practice to identify a variety of tools that can be used to shape local markets, and could potentially be used by any market shaper(s) of the future.
Owner / Resolution Foundation / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source /
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Name / Who Cares: Who Pays?
Description / This briefing summarises the main findings of an independent report – Who cares: who pays? Personalisation in social care – by Professor Hilary Land of Bristol University and Professor Sue Himmelweit of the Open University.
The report was funded by UNISON’s General Political Fund and was published in March 2010. The full report can be downloaded from: unison.org.uk/localgov/personalisation.asp
Owner / Unison / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source /
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Information Tools
Name / DH Guide to receiving Direct Payments from your councilDescription / Advice to people who are thinking about or who are already getting direct payments from their local council social services department.
Includes information about “becoming an employer” and provides a useful summary of the main responsibilities that employers have.
Owner / Department of Health / Target Audience / Service users and carers
Source /
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Name / Council Guide to Personal Budgets
Description / It is a recommendation of the PA Project that each council should develop its own “Guide to Personal Budgets” describing the policy and processes that underpin personalisation in the area.
Owner / Local Authority / Target Audience / Service Users, carers, Personal Assistants
Source / An example of the type of information included in a Council Guide can be found at:
Return to Toolkit
Name / Social Care Institute for Excellence “At A Glance” Resources
Description / A series of briefing notes on the implications of personalisation, produced by SCIE and the National Centre for Independent Living.
Owner / SCIE / Target Audience / Service users, carers and Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / Raising the Profile
Description / It is recommended that LAs take action to raise the profile of direct employment amongst service users and PAs in “hotspot” areas, via local communications and awareness raising campaigns.
The DH has produced a “Putting People First Communications Toolkit” to support councils in their communications about Putting People First with the local public, including current and prospective users of services and their families. This work has been undertaken in close consultation with local and central government partners including ADASS and the Office for Disability Issues.
Owner / DH / Target Audience / Local Authorities
Source / DH Communications Hub under development – to be available via the Transforming Adult Social Care website
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Name / Getting Started – Guide for Direct Payment Customers
Description / Comprehensive guide for direct payment recipients, providing information about the implications of taking a direct payment, together with resources aimed at assisting DP recipients who choose to become employers. The guide includes chapters covering:
- Recruitment
- Policies, procedures & record keeping
- Induction & Learning
- Health & Safety
- Money Matters
- Extra Help
Owner / Skills for Care / Manchester City Council / Target Audience / Direct Payment recipients
Source /
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Name / Getting Started – A Guide for PAs
Description / Companion guide to that for direct payment customers, providing similarly comprehensive information in the form of a toolkit for Personal Assistants. Again suited to a modular approach or as a complete reference guide, the toolkit runs to 99 pages across five chapters:
- Becoming an Employee
- Learning & Development
- Health & Safety
- Money Matters
- Extra Help
Owner / Skills for Care / Manchester City Council / Target Audience / Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / e-Learning Module – Direct Payments
Description / This Direct Payments e-learning course provides Health, Care Management and Voluntary sector staff with an understanding of Direct Payments so that they can help service users to gain access to such funding.
The course also provides information for Service Users and their Carers to help them:
- Make informed choices about whether Direct Payments will offer a real alternative to services provided directly from the Council
- With guidance about how payments are arranged and supported
Owner / Kwango Ltd
(e-learning provider) / Target Audience / Local Authorities, service users, carers and Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / Social Care TV - Personalisation
Description / An online TV channel providing access to video based training resources and general interest programmes, reflecting the issues, challenges and rewards in current social care practice.
Owner / SCIE / Target Audience / Service users, carers and Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / Social Care TV – Days in the life of...a service user
Description / Ann, a disabled person, describes the barriers facing disabled people, discusses the issues involved in employing personal assistants and talks about her own work to bring about positive change.
Owner / SCIE / Target Audience / Service users, carers and Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / Les’s Story
Description / Les is a customer who lives with Muscular Dystrophy and uses Direct Payments to live a very full, very active life in Warwickshire. This series of audio diary messages describes Les’s experience of life with Direct Payments
Owner / Warwickshire County Council / Target Audience / Service users, carers, Personal Assistants
Source /
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Name / Being the Boss
Description / This website has been created to address the lack of peer support available to disabled people who employ their own Personal Assistants (PAs). This is done by sharing information based on the experiences of disabled people who employ their own PAs, and by providing a safe forum to discuss/share ideas.
Owner / Being the Boss is a User-Led Organisation supported by Nottinghamshire County Council / Target Audience / Service users, carers
Source /
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Name / Personalisation: A Rough Guide
Description / This guide aims to tell the story so far about the personalisation of adult social care services. It is intended to set out SCIE’s understanding of personalisation at a very early stage of implementation, exploring what personalisation is, where the idea came from and placing the transformation of adult social care in the wider public service reform agenda.
Owner / SCIE / Target Audience / Local Authorities, care providers, service users, carers, PAs
Source /
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Name / SCIE People Management website
Description / Website and database of resources, including good practice information, articles, research, and links to websites and other organisations. Primarily aimed at social care organisations, many of the resources are relevant to direct employment or can be adapted to suit the needs of employers.
Owner / SCIE / Target Audience / Service users and carers
Source /
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Name / Direct Payment Support Organisations
Description / The majority of local authorities in the West Midlands commission support services for their Direct Payment customers through user-led support organisations. Each Support Organisation operates its own website which describes the range of services on offer. The Support Organisations that are active in the West Midlands are listed below.