Back to top"DIRECTIONS" Issue 13 SUMMER 2001
Recruitment has been a major activity during the last couple of months. We have now filled vacancies in a number of areas and welcome to our organisation the following new members of staff:
Since the last Newsletter, we are pleased to announce that The Rowan Organisation has also been awarded the contract to provide the Independent Living Advice service in the county of Lancashire. Four new posts have been created and it is expected that the service will begin in early July. In this respect, we would like to welcome Emma Haddock as the new Project Manager for Lancashire. The other appointments will be made at the end of June.
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The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is an executive agency of the Home Office. It has been established to provide a regulated 'one-stop' service that will enable employers to receive information to help them make more informed recruitment decisions. This service is of particular importance for those employers who recruit into an environment where there may be regular contact with vulnerable adults and children.
When it was announced, The Rowan Organisation was delighted to think that it's service users who are in receipt of Direct Payments, and who therefore possibly recruit Personal Assistants, would benefit. We were soon to be disappointed however, when we discovered that such people are excluded from accessing it !
The service, called Disclosure becomes operational in the Autumn of this year. At that time, employers will be able to ask for either a Standard or an Enhanced disclosure. Standard Disclosures are primarily for positions that involve regular contact with children or vulnerable adults. The information provided by this check will contain details of all convictions on the Police National Computer (including "spent" convictions, i.e. those that happened some time ago and also details of any cautions, reprimands or warnings).
Enhanced Disclosures are for posts which involve greater (often unsupervised) contact with children or vulnerable adults. Typically, this might involve regularly caring for, or being in sole charge of people. This type of Disclosure involves an extra level of checking with local police force records in addition to those carried out for the Standard Disclosure.
We had envisaged becoming a registered "umbrella" organisation so that our service users would be able to access Disclosure and use ourselves as the required counter-signatory. Clearly we believe that this service would be highly beneficial to all disabled people who employ one or more personal assistants. Therefore, what started as an enquiry through local M.P., Mike O'Brien as to whether these police checks would be free to disabled people in receipt of direct payments, soon led to the realisation both within the CRB and the Home Office, that these people are actually excluded from accessing the service.
We have received a letter from the Home Office Minister, Charles Clarke, that acknowledges the issue and he has assured us (as has the Criminal Records Bureau) that the matter is being investigated within the department. He also suggested that a change in legislation would be required to change the current criteria.
It does seem to us that there has been a serious omission in the introduction of the Disclosure service, particularly as it was introduced to help to protect vulnerable adults (in our context, disabled people who employ P.A.'s).
Although the omission was not intentional, the Home Office has thanked us for raising this matter with them. We will be kept informed on the resolution of this issue and will update all of our readers on progress made over the coming months.
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DISABILITY CONCILIATION SERVICE
The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has recently launched the Disability Conciliation Service (DCS). It will help disabled people to challenge the discrimination they face on a daily basis e.g. in shops, bars, cinemas, buying services over the phone. Other matters covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, for example employment, are not dealt with by the DCS.
The service will also help businesses and service providers to put their point of view in disputes and will help them to avoid situations where discrimination occurs.
If a disabled person has a complaint against a company or service, they can contact the DRC Helpline on 08457 622 633. If their complaint is likely to fall within Part III (goods and services) of the Disability Discrimination Act, their case may be referred to the Conciliation Service. Business and services can also seek help from the DRC about best practice on providing goods and services.
Ultimately, disabled people who believe that they may have been discriminated against may take their case to a court of law, but this may be a costly, time-consuming and confrontational process. Conciliation provides an alternative. It is a way of resolving disputes which helps those involved to reach agreement with the help of an impartial third party.
Cases are initially raised through the DRC Helpline, and should they establish that there is a justifiable legal basis for taking up a case then it will be handed over to the DCS. The problem will then be discussed with the disabled person and the service provider and an attempt made to provide a solution. This process is entirely voluntary and may be stopped at any time by either party.
A recent case of conciliation highlights a typical settlement in which a blind man (with guide dog) was refused a meal in a restaurant that operated a "No Dogs" policy. The man pointed out that the restaurant was breaking the law. After conciliation, the restaurant agreed to change it's policy and paid the man £500 in compensation for hurt feelings.
Source material: DRC Website, www.drc-gb.org
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There are a number of sources of potential funding for improvements and alterations to home premises. The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is available from local housing authorities and can be given to owner-occupiers, private tenants, council tenants, housing association tenants and landlords with disabled tenants.
The local authority cannot give a DFG unless they are satisfied that the adaptation is necessary and appropriate for the disabled person. In this respect, they must receive supporting evidence from Social Services who will arrange for an Occupational Therapist to visit you in the home to make a considered assessment. In addition, the local authority has to be satisfied that the proposed adaptation is reasonable and practicable, taking into account the age and condition of the property.
A person who applies for a DFG must be at least 18 years old. It's also a means tested grant, so income and personal savings will be taken into account when determining eligibility. There are two types of DFG; mandatory and discretionary. Mandatory DFG's can be given for the following:
Currently, the maximum mandatory DFG that can be awarded is £20,000 in England. A discretionary DFG can be awarded for any of the mandatory items where the cost of the works is more than the maximum. It can also be awarded for adaptations that make the home suitable for the accommodation, welfare or employment of the disabled person e.g. an extension, a safe play area for a disabled child or a home office. It's up to the local housing authority to decide whether to give a discretionary DFG. There is no maximum amount of discretionary DFG that can be awarded.
The local authority must make a decision about a DFG application within 6 months. They are allowed to delay payment of the mandatory DFG for up to 12 months from the date the application was made.
Clearly, each local authority has a budget allocated to such grants and applications will also be prioritised based upon their judgement of need. If you have a need and think you may qualify for a DFG (or other form of housing grant) please feel free to contact The Rowan Organisation for advice.
(Source material: Care & Repair England / SCOPE)
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THE STAFFORDSHIRE DIRECT PAYMENTS SCHEME
I am pleased to say that the Staffordshire Direct Payment Scheme is growing steadily. It is now more than six months since the scheme expanded across the whole of the county and believe me it is a big county !
Some of you may be aware that Staffordshire ran a pilot project for their direct payments. The pilot area included Lichfield, Tamworth, Burton on Trent and Uttoxeter and ran for 2 years. At that time the Rowan Organisation was chosen to provide the support and Kate Waugh was appointed as Independent Living Adviser (ILA).
Although the pilot scheme was small it was indeed a success and so from October 20th 2000 the decision was made to expand the scheme across the whole county. The Rowan Organisation was awarded the contract to provide the support as we have so much experience in direct payments. We needed more staff to run the support scheme and this is where I came in as Project Manager and we appointed another ILA Heather Darby.
As well as including a wider area the larger scheme also included people over 65 and people with learning disabilities. The inclusion of so many more people meant that potentially the Staffordshire scheme could be massive and most importantly more people would have real choice over the way they live their lives.
We have done a lot of work to raise awareness of the availability of direct payments to everyone in Staffordshire. We have also been heavily involved in providing training to social workers to enable them to give more information to their service users.
At the official launch of the Direct Payments Scheme in February 2001 people from all across Staffordshire were invited to witness Cllr Taylor cutting a cake. The launch was well attended and the cake was extremely large but very nice ! (indeed some of it was brought back to The Rowan Centre in Atherstone to be enjoyed by staff and service users !). The scheme received some very positive publicity from the launch and resulted in many people contacting us for further information.
There has been a change over of staff and we have recently appointed Sandra Cameron as ILA to replace Michael Doherty. I am sure she will be an asset to the Staffordshire team and look forward to working with her.
We are continuing to promote the scheme and in just 6 months the original 11 direct payments users have grown to 24. There are also another 8 people waiting to go on the scheme and many more considering direct payments.
We are in the process of establishing Support Groups among the current direct payments users in Staffordshire. We hope this will provide another area of support for service users and enable them to share information about the scheme and how it has worked for them.
Direct Payments are now a real option for disabled people right across Staffordshire. I hope we can continue to provide advice and support to enable many more people to use the scheme.
Debbie Bowen, Project Manager, Staffordshire
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Community Service Volunteers (CSV), the national volunteering agency, is a registered charity founded in 1962 in the belief that all young people could make a valuable contribution to the community if they were found the right opportunity. CSV provides full-time volunteers to support client groups of non-profit organisations.
Groups that CSV currently support include disabled people, older people, people with mental health issues, children with special educational needs and many more.
CSV volunteers work on a full-time basis with one person or group of people and therefore often "live-in". The placement usually extends from between four to twelve months and is re-newable if required. All volunteers are interviewed and two references obtained. Where circumstances require, CSV facilitates a police check. The key volunteer duties can be wide ranging and so it is worth highlighting some of these :
CSV Head Office
237 Pentonville Road
London N1 9NJ
Tel: 020 7278 6601
Website: www.csv.org.uk
They will be able to put you in touch with a regional office in your locality.
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PERSONAL ASSISTANT'S: EMPLOYMENT STATUS
If you employ your own Personal Assistant(s) or might be about to do so, then it is important that you read this article which seeks to clarify the issues surrounding employment status.
In a recent case, a disabled person in receipt of Independent Living Fund and Direct Payments has been left owing the Tax Office a considerable amount of tax and National Insurance (Employees and Employers) because the P.A. claimed self-employment status. Although the P.A. had been paying tax on her earnings and second class National Insurance contributions, the nature of the work she was undertaking meant that she should have been classed an employee, not self-employed.
The situation was made worse by the fact that the disabled person was also paying out all of her ILF Payments to the other P.A.'s and therefore had no residue of funds out of which to pay the outstanding tax and N.I. calculated by the Inland Revenue.
In this case, a representative from the Employer Compliance Team helped to highlight the issue and has clarified the legislation that applies in these circumstances.
Basically, P.A.'s that are not supplied through an agency can be divided into two categories:
In the former case, the P.A. is usually treated as self-employed, although the contractual arrangements between the two parties should be looked at.
In the case where a P.A. is working in the clients home and the relationship is effectively a 'master/servant' relationship, s/he is deemed an employee.
The Rowan Organisation's advice is as follows:
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The usual article on complimentary therapies will appear in the next issue . . . . . apologies to those of you who were looking forward to it this time around. Please always feel free to comment or suggest items for future issues. Hope that you all have a good summer !
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