Direct Payments for Carers - my experience

Direct Payments - receive money from your local authority to choose and employ your own carer.  What's not to like, what could possibly go wrong?

We had a carer for our son Tom for 18 months, using the Direct Payment scheme.  Recently she left and we wanted to employ a new carer.  Here is the story of sorting out the employment of the new carer.

Having sorted through the job description, health and safety notice, and information on disciplinary and grievance procedures, and having updated the risk assessment, insurance certificate, employee registration form (not to be confused with the employee registration and liability form), and P46 for our son's new carer; having photocopied three forms of ID from our carer as specified in lists 1, 2, and 2a, and having decided that the carer personal information form was probably not necessary, the information being reproduced elsewhere, I realised that we needed electronic, or at the least new paper copies, of the contract and the employee registration and liability form.

I also wasn't sure if I still needed to complete the forms for routes 1, 3, and 6 of the DBS checking system and send them to the local authority, or how I could find the online DBS form our new carer had already done for another employer.

The original organisation who had supplied the pro-forma contract 18 months previously was no longer contracted by the local authority. I tried to phone the local authority's direct payments helpline, as given on my original 18 month old paperwork.  The number was no longer available.  The email address of the person who had at that time been my point of contact in the local authority was also not working.  So I phoned the number of the new outsourced direct payments organisation.  They told me they don't do contracts, told me to contact the local authority directly, and gave me the generic social services number.  That number put me through to the children's disability service, who put me through to my son's social worker, who we had seen the previous day.

All this took so long and was so frustrating that I neglected Tom, who was downstairs watching telly.  I got tea ready late and then tried to hurry Tom at bathtime; he started having a meltdown and I blew up and shouted at him.  And he's the one whose care and wellbeing this is all about.

The moral of this story:  policymakers, always keep your focus on the realities of life for service users.  Parent carers like me sorting direct payments are by definition in need of help with care.  They will be juggling the paperwork with the needs of their child/children and their jobs and household tasks.  Please keep it simple.  And please make sure there is one-stop-shop admin back-up for direct payments that can supply parent employers with the paperwork and admin advice they need.  Oh, and please make sure that the Direct Payments scheme is flagged up to parents via school or the health service - we found out about it through the grapevine, talking to other parents.