SHROPSHIRE Council is encouraging people who receive social care support to consider payments that enable them to choose how and when they receive it.

‘Direct payments’ are payments from Shropshire Council instead of care services, and they are available to any adult who has been assessed as having relevant eligible needs.

There are currently 555 recipients of direct payments in the Shropshire Council area, but many more people are eligible, and the council wants to make more people aware of direct payments and their benefits.

Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult social care, said:"Direct payments offer the flexibility to provide care and support in a different way, recognising that everyone’s needs are unique, and offer a wide range of benefits to those who receive them.

"We know not all eligible people are aware of direct payments, so we want to raise awareness and encourage more people to take up this way of receiving the support that best suits them.

She continued: "In short, we want to ensure that people are aware of direct payments, can access information easily, and know where to go for help.

"But we also want to make people aware of the chance to become a personal assistant to someone who receives direct payments and encourage them to contact us if this opportunity is of interest."

OTHER NEWS:

Direct payments money can be used in a variety of ways to meet a person’s eligible goals, for example to employ a personal assistant (PA); buy support from a care agency; for transport costs; to buy equipment; membership of a group or club; or support for unpaid and family carers.

Shropshire Council has just launched a Personal Assistant (PA) recruitment website to help those people with a direct payment find a suitable PA and help PAs look for work much more easily.

The Shropshire PA noticeboard site is at https://shropshire.panoticeboard.org.uk/

There are three videos on the site featuring local people who have a direct payment explaining how they use their payment and receive support.

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The new website is in addition to an existing site that offers lots of information about Direct Payments and how to get started.

For more information about direct payments visit the Shropshire Council website.

There are also opportunities for employed Personal Assistants (PAs) to access free training at Careskills Academy, where they can access over 80 virtual CPD accredited social care courses online, to gain the training, skills, and knowledge necessary to do their jobs.