Back to top"DIRECTIONS" Issue 16 Spring 2002
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We are pleased to welcome back Karen Morris who joins the admin team after having previously worked for the Rowan as a Personal Support Worker/Driver.
We also welcome Margaret Johnson to the organisation. Margaret joins the admin team and part of her role will be to support the ever expanding Direct Payments payroll system.
Arlene Jones has been appointed as Independent Living Advisor covering the North Staffordshire area and replaces Sandra Cameron.
We’re also about to appoint a part-time Independent Living Advisor to help support the increasing take up of Direct Payments in Staffordshire.
We’re delighted to announce that the Rowan Organisation has been selected to support the Direct Payments Scheme in the county of Wiltshire. The contract is currently being finalised and it is anticipated that the existing service will be transitioned by April 2002.
Finally, we would be pleased if you could find some time to fill in, cut out and return the short questionnaire that appears on the final page. Thanks.
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In recent months the Rowan Organisation has received a few queries from service users that have raised issues concerning the opening of Bank Accounts. It is of course a requirement of the Direct Payments Scheme that the service user opens a bank account specifically for the purpose of managing their direct payments.
Two of the queries concerned banks that initially seemed to be refusing a person an account on the basis that they would be unable to sign cheques. Another concerned a bank that suggested the person would be unable to manage a bank account due to the nature of their condition (in spite of the fact that the local social services had assessed that the person was able to ‘consent and manage’ direct payments).
In order to clarify some of the issues, we’ve researched information provided by the British Bakers Association on their Web Site (www.bba.org.uk) and also sought clarification from the Disability Rights Commission. The following summary highlights the main points regarding banks and disability :
First of all, since 1999 the law has required that banks make reasonable adjustments so that disabled customers can access bank services. In practice, this means that the banks need to:
As far as signing cheques is concerned, there should currently be no barriers. Facsimile signature stamps, cheque book templates and plastic overlays are all valid methods. If necessary a disabled person can, using third party mandate, nominate someone else to sign on their behalf. A further safeguard would be to open a second account into which money could be transferred from the main account over the telephone, and give someone authority to sign the second account.
There are some exceptions where the new requirements don’t apply. One of these is stated as ‘if a customer is incapable of entering into a legally enforceable agreement or giving informed consent’. This statement is likely to be challenged in the case of the service user who has been deemed able to consent and manage by Social Services, but not so by the bank legislation concerned. This situation raises a number of important issues and it’s our understanding that the matter has been raised at a governmental level.
In general, the banks have made significant progress in removing barriers and in the vast majority of cases, a disabled person should not expect to experience problems with their local branch . . . providing of course, that the local branch staff have received effective awareness training !
(Source material: www.bba.org.uk)
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DIRECT PAYMENTS: EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS
If you have been assessed as being eligible to receive and are awarded Direct Payments, you will no doubt seek to recruit one or more Personal Assistants (P.A.’s) to support and assist your needs. The Rowan Independent Living Advisors are there to help you with this process if required.
Once a suitable candidate has been chosen by yourself, it’s important as an employer, that you follow an appropriate procedure to appoint and subsequently manage your P.A.
The first step in this process will be an Offer Letter. The letter should ideally include a statement to the effect that the offer is subject to satisfactory references and a criminal record check.
As a registered employer you will also require that the P.A. agrees and signs a contract of employment. The contract is a legal requirement that contains essential employment information, such as hours of work, rate of pay, holiday entitlement, job description, termination clauses etc. It also contains a set of Terms and Conditions that relate to the job.
The employment contract is as essential to the P.A. as it is to yourself. Apart from containing the statutory minimum requirements for a contract, it should ideally provide explicit information so that misunderstandings or issues are ideally avoided from the outset.
It’s important that that the P.A. agrees and signs the contract. Reasonable time should be allowed for the P.A. to study and understand the contract before s/he signs it. We therefore recommend that a draft, customised contract is issued along with the Offer Letter. In this way, the employee has time to study the contract, and raise any issues or points of clarification ahead of starting. It’s therefore considered ‘reasonable’ that the P.A. should agree and sign within the first few working days (although, by law, a contract is actually deemed to exist anyway once the employee accepts the job and starts work). The Employment Bill currently under construction and which comes into effect in 2003 will make it mandatory that the employer has a signed contract in place from day one of the employment.
If required, the Rowan’s Independent Living Advisors can supply you with a sample contract and assist you in creating a final version suitable for your and your P.A.’s needs.
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DIRECT PAYMENTS - PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCES
RB from North Warwickshire sent us his comments on the Direct Payments scheme . . .
“As a user of Direct Payments, I have always found it straightforward and easy to apply. It gives you the chance to employ your own carers and therefore choose the kind of people that suit your daily routine and lifestyle. I have been very fortunate in my choice of staff and we have a very good working relationship, which is signified by the length of time they have been with me. Any paperwork that has to be completed is provided by the scheme and is simple to complete and manage. If I have any problems, the staff at the Rowan Centre are always available to help and assist”.
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MH from Milton Keynes is Rosie’s foster mum, main carer and manages her direct payments account :
“Being on Direct Payments has made quite a lot of difference to Rosie. It means that various people can come in to look after her, sometimes for just a few hours, sometimes for the weekend. I asked Rosie what she thought about the differences that it had made. She said that she really enjoyed being with her P.A.’s for the weekend and being able to go bowling, swimming and out for lunch. For me, as Rosie’s foster mum and her main P.A. I’ve started to do things that I’ve always put on hold; a weekend in Bath, staying at my sisters and going to the pictures. Even just food shopping, which can be difficult.
The Rowan Organisation has been a life saver as I would not be able to do the payroll, and they have taken me through what has to be done. Whenever I’ve had problems, Lisa has come out the same day to help me through them. Once the system is in place, I’m sure it will be a piece of cake, but I’ve needed a lot of support setting up, but the main gain from Direct Payments is that Rosie has been able to choose where she wanted to live and how she wanted that done”.
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JD from Milton Keynes has sent us his views on Direct Payments . . .
“I have been using Direct Payments to fund my care package in Milton Keynes since August 1999. With the help of the Rowan Organisation, this means I’m able to recruit my own Personal Assistants and manage my care package on a day to day basis, including the payroll.
I currently employ two Personal Assistants who work on a week on/week off basis. They assist me with all my daily living needs, as well as my professional activities with Royal Mail.
Like everything else, there are lows as well as highs with a Direct Payments-based care package, but the highs always outweigh the lows and I believe that Direct Payments is the closest to independence that it is possible for me to get”.
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We received this e-mail from LS from West Lancashire . . .
“For some years, people with learning disabilities in Lancashire had been campaigning for Direct Payments. Quite recently a few have been successful and I would like to say what a difference it has made to my son’s life.
At last he has a social life that does not include his parents. As we are in our 70’s it is important that he has a chance to do ‘his own thing’. To thisend he now goes to the cinema, local gym twice a week, theatre or football match and one night a week for an evening down the pub. His relationship with his P.A. is so good that he says they are more friends than P.A. and employer.
All this has been made possible by the Rowan Organisation and our adviser, Kate Burgess, who came to visit my son and steered us through the various steps of setting up Direct Payments. It could be said that Kate did everything for us as far as advertising, arranging interviews, notifying the successful candidate and advising us about insurance.
Some people are turned off because they think that Direct Payments are complicated, but the opposite is the truth. It requires a simple income and expenditure list, a note of who the cheques were paid to, a timesheet to account for the P.A.’s pay and car expenses and that’s it !
The result is that our son has an independent social life that he never had before which enables him to meet other people on equal terms and he also has a friend in his P.A.”.
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JW from North Warwickshire has sent her account entitled ‘Freedom for All’ . . . . .
“I was born disabled but did not need a wheelchair until I was twelve years of age. As years went by my muscles started to weaken and by the time I was eighteen, I needed a lot of help particularly with dressing, bathing, help at the toilet and getting in and out of bed. My independence had gone. It was all left for my mother to do, on top of her part time job. For years my mother helped me, until one day she had to go into hospital for an operation.
Social Services came in and decided that I was to have the home help in. We filled the forms in. I hated everything about it. Having some stranger in to do everything personal for me. Being in my middle thirties I just wanted to hibernate for ever. But that was so selfish of me; I had to think of my mother and give her the well earned rest from caring for me. She had cared for me and now it was my turn to care for her.
Social Services changed their minds on the home help and instead, I had care attendants come in. That was fine at the start. For a few weeks I had the same carer coming in. Then it became hit and miss. Sometimes they forget you.
Then they do change around and start to send different carers and yet again, sometimes then they would forget you. You don’t complain. Be grateful that someone is hopefully coming in to help you with your needs. For six years I was unhappy with what I was going through ! I used to confide in my social worker as we had become good friends. She wanted to say something, but I was afraid to. My social worker had always been asking “why don’t you go private ?”. I couldn't do that. I thought you had to be rich to do that.
She explained everything to me - that I would get help with money from Social Services and I would pay a certain amount towards it as well. My independence would be back and would be in charge of my own decisions !
I put an advert in the Job Centre. Then, the replies started rolling in. I was feeling quite apprehensive. Am I doing the right thing ?
For three years my P.A. has worked for me. I have never looked back ! I can get up when I want to, have my bath when I want and go and do my own shopping with my P.A. with confidence. My P.A. is not just my personal assistant but she is also a very good friend. At the end of the month I pay her wages. Every quarter, you fill in paper work and send bank statements with paperwork to social services so that they can see that the correct hours are being used and the correct wages are issued.
I have never looked back “!
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We would like to thank all of the contributors for their articles in this issue and believe that their experiences help to demonstrate some of the benefits that the Direct Payments option can offer.
In April this year, local authorities must offer the option of Direct Payments to individuals who are assessed as being eligible to receive care services. Direct Payments can now be offered as an option to disabled adults (no age limit), children and carers.
For more information about the scheme, please contact your local social services or one of the Rowan Organisation’s Independent Living Advisors in your area.
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CRIMINAL RECORD CHECKS - UPDATE
In the Summer 2001 issue of this Newsletter, we highlighted the fact that disabled people who employ their own P.A.’s are excluded from using the Disclosure Service, managed by the Criminal Records Bureau. In the intervening months, we have been in regular contact with the Home Office and responded with what we believe to be valid arguments and a solution for allowing disabled people to make checks on who they are considering employing.
In February this year, we met with two Home Office officials to discuss the issues and to understand the way forward.
As the law currently stands, an individual (as opposed to a ‘business’) is excluded from being able to ask exempted questions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Although the government has understood the principles of our arguments it’s clear that emergency changes to secondary legislation would not be the right way forward. Conversely, a change to primary legislation would likely take two to three years.
The immediate plan is for the Home Office to involve the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act Review Group with a view to issuing a Report by June, this year. It is felt that the shortest timescale for an amendment to secondary legislation would be around twelve months.
In the mean time, the Rowan Organisation has registered with the Disclosure Service to become an ‘umbrella organisation’. Once approved, this would allow it to act on behalf of service users to receive criminal record information for prospective Personal Assistants, before an appointment to the position is made. Under the current law, we would be unable to share any details of the criminal record, but would be allowed to make a general recommendation on the suitability of the candidate for the post.
The Rowan Organisation is currently waiting for the Disclosure Service to complete the registration process and once this has been done we should be in a position to offer this service to our service users. Further details will be made available through our Factsheets as well as through our Independent Living Advisors.
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EMPLOYERS LIABILITY INSURANCE - GOOD NEWS FOR YOUNG ADULTS
If you read the last Newsletter or have been looking at our Web Site, you will know that there has been an on-going issue regarding the availability of Employers Liability Insurance for 16 and 17 year old adults.
Following consultation and discussions with, amongst others, the Association of British Insurers, the International Underwriting Association and the DTLR, we are very pleased to have been informed by Fish Insurance that this form of insurance policy is available to young adults with immediate effect and at no extra premium cost.
This announcement has brought great relief to ourselves and particularly to those local authorities who have already extended their Direct Payments Scheme to include young adults.
Application for this policy will require full payment of the annual premium before cover comes into effect. It’s therefore important to ensure that this has been taken into account in the calculation of the first Direct Payment paid by the local authority. Please contact your local Independent Living Advisor at the Rowan if you would like further information.
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Young Carers is a service developed by NCH Action for Children, the leading child care charity, in partnership with Warwickshire County Council. Similar projects also exist in a number of counties across the UK.
The Young Carers project aims to provide information, support and advice to young carers under the age of 18.
Young carers may be looking after a parent, grandparent, brother or sister. The person being cared for may have for example, an illness, disability or mental health problem. A young carer may be involved in helping with cooking, cleaning and shopping, or may have to help with personal care.
Young carers have additional needs related to their caring roles and their developmental needs may be compromised as a result of taking on tasks inappropriate to their age and development.
Given the nature of caring, it is difficult to know how many young carers there are. The Carers National Association suggests that there may be as many as 51,000 young carers in the UK.
The effects on young carers can be impairment of physical, emotional and mental health. Feelings of fear, guilt, anxiety, social isolation and loss of education (through poor attendance) can be common facets of being a young carer. Overall, there may be loss of childhood and having to take on responsibilities inappropriate to age, difficulties in establishing and maintaining friendships, pursuing social activities and the stigmatisation of caring for someone.
These projects typically offer information and advice to young carers and their families and opportunities to meet with other young carers, undertake social activities and generally have fun. Importantly, the Young Carers projects can often offer additional support to help relieve the burden often felt by young carers.
If you know of a young carer, perhaps you could tell them about this and they could contact their nearest project. General enquiries can be made to the NCH Supporter Helpline on 0845 762 6579.
(Source material: N. Warks NCH Young Carers)
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From April 2002, new rates will apply to the Disabled Person’s Tax Credit and the Working Families’ Tax Credit. In both cases, if your next award starts before 9th April 2002, your family will not be due the new rates until your next 26 week award ends and you re-apply. If you decide to wait until April in order to get this extra help, you will not receive any tax credit payments until April. If your circumstances change between now and April, your entitlement to tax credit may be affected. So you will need to consider your financial circumstances carefully, including your entitlement to other benefits, before deciding what is best for you. If you have any queries or want to know more about how these changes could affect you, please contact the Helpline number 0845 609 5000 (Working Families Tax Credit) or 0845 606 6668 (Disabled Persons Tax Credit).
There are mainly inflationary increases to benefits from April 2002 and these are listed on the next page:
New Benefits rates will apply from April 2002 and some of these are highlighted below :
Attendance Allowance (Higher) . . . . . £56.25 (Lower) . . . . . £37.65
Disability Living Allowance:
Care needs: (Higher) . . . . . £56.25 (Middle) . . . . . £37.65 (Lower) . . . . . £14.90
Mobility: (Higher) . . . . . £39.30 (Lower) . . . . . £14.90 Invalid Care Allowance . . . . . £42.45
Severe Disablement Allowance . . . . . £42.85 (for claims made before April 2001 only)
Disabled Persons Tax Credit (adult single person) . . . . . £62.10 (couple/lone parent) . . . . . £92.80
Retirement Pension . . . . . £75.50
The official leaflets will be available towards the beginning of April.
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The Rowan Organisation’s web site has just passed it’s first anniversary. Generally speaking it has been very successful and the number of people accessing this service has steadily increased.
So far, the site has received over 3000 ‘hits’. Approximately 75% of visitors are from the UK with the remainder calling in from many countries around the world. The number of enquiries via e-mail or the ‘feedback form’ continues to increase, mainly from people who live in the counties where the Rowan Organisation provides the Direct Payments Scheme support service.
Last year the site was given a Golden Web Award and also commended by the RNIB for it’s design and accessibility aspects. The links page is substantial, and we also know that our site features as a link on at least 40 other web sites.
There are plans in the future to enhance the site to include features such as a ‘Message Board or Forum’, ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ and perhaps a ’For Sale’ section or Advertising space. If you have any ideas that you think would be useful to incorporate, please get in touch by phone, e-mail or use the Feedback Form on this we site.
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