Has anyone use direct payment to pay for a carer? It been suggested to use this method of payment to get mum extra support but unsure if it going to help or cause more problems.
Can anyone give me some advice or experience please.
How much care does mum need, in terms of hours per week - which they should already have assessed?
My son with learning difficulties had Direct Payments for a while. He had DP’s for 34 hours a week, but lived 15 miles away from me, in a rural area. There were many advantages, and many disadvantages too. I ended up having no option but to resign from managing them because I was spending more and more time organising things for him when I’ve been under instructions never to care for anyone ever again (after cancer surgery) for nearly 20 years. I was promised by the LA that they would arrange for someone else to manage them, but instead they arranged directly commissioned care which has been a nightmare too.
If you could tell us a bit more about mum and the care she needs, and the hours they have offered, I would be able to give a few suggestions about whether to accept them, or not.
Michael the biggest challenge with DP is finding someone suitable for the role to pay. Do you have someone in mind?
DP can also be used for agency care but the rate isn’t often enough for the better agencies.
If you do go the DP route insist on having a payroll provider so you aren’t stuck with all the paperwork and only have to sign time sheets. The costs of the payroll charity/company should be costed into the DPs awarded.
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Heya.
The biggest ever issue that I’ve had so far is finding suitable trained candidates. You can try advertising directly in order to hire someone who is quite good. Best wishes to you too. Schedule a interview to discuss things face to face. Focus on skills rather than qualifications here for optimal results. Or try to contact a live in care provider. Recommendations matter especially in the care sector. You can do this. Seriously. It helped me taking deep breaths. The process is hard but doable. And it was generally worth my time.
Think of this as a form of head hunting for people. My lovely notepad helped as a form of preparation at the follow up meeting in my house.
Country Cousins are good or try looking up names online instead. Don’t forget to read the whole inspection report- you can find this online too. It is always a really good idea to make some brief summary notes on local care homes in case. Try to trust your gut feeling. Take a look at what you happen to see on the company website. Follow up initial inquiries with a phone call to talk further in private. The follow up face to face interview is a good opportunity to see if you trust them or not. I made initial contact via email at first but switched half way through the entire process of finding applicants who were keen.
We are back to looking for a PA after two hopeless agencies. I have been doing all the work of a PA since June. Unpaid of course. I am tempted to ask County Hall to pay me. What do you think.
I have advertised for a PA and had two replies, one was very bossy which wouldn’t go down at all well with daughter and the other left me her wrong phone number so I can’t get back to her. Social Worker said she can arrange advert but it could take months.
Penny, as this amounts to “exceptional cirmstances” they should pay you.
I don’t understand why they can’t pay you anyway as you don’t live with your daughter and you will be taking her out and about/supporting her in her own home. You’d just need a payroll company to process the timesheets as you wouldn’t be allowed to pay yourself.
Thanks BB. Have just sent SW an email about this. I Am worn out and daughter is very low.
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Penny, I too and utterly fed up with Social Services. The failure to allocate a long term social worker has devastating consequences for me. Going back through some old paperwork, I came across an agenda for a meeting that I had written, to deal with some issues relating to M’s care in 2008. Sadly, I realised that all the subsequent meetings were basically repeats of that meeting, just different social workers and different staff. I’m so, so tired of it all. The meetings, the letter writing, the lack of response, the failure to do anything about M’s weight. Since 2008 he’s put on six stone and no one is bothered. All I want is to know that he’s safe happy and healthy. Then I can escape from this prison without walls, condemned to endless emails, endless filing, and endless calls from M asking me to do this, that and the other because his staff can’t, or won’t. I’m in exactly the same boat as you.
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