The information requested
In our request, we refer to:
• Direct payments: specifically, money paid to clients aged 18 years and over so that they can arrange their own care and support.
• Personal assistants: provide people with personal, domestic, and social support to help them live independently.
• Homecare: social care and support services delivered in people’s own homes (also known as ‘domiciliary care’ or ‘care at home’).
In case of doubt, you should apply a reasonable and practical interpretation to the request. If you do not hold the information in the exact form requested, please provide the nearest available information you hold and explain the basis on which it is recorded.
The information requested is:
(a) The total number of adult social care clients aged 18 years and over in receipt of a direct payment as of: (i) 1 April 2024, (ii) 1 April 2025 and (iii) 1 April 2026 (or the nearest dates for which data is held).
(b) The percentage of adult social care clients aged 18 years and over in receipt of a direct payment as of: (i) 1 April 2024, (ii) 1 April 2025 and (iii) 1 April 2026 (or the nearest dates for which data is held). Please also state the denominator used for each percentage calculation (i.e. the total number of all adult social care clients aged 18 years and over for each date).
(c) Please provide details of any strategy or target you have to increase direct payment uptake among adult social care clients over the next few years.
Questions (d)-(e) consider how direct payments are used.
(d) The total number of clients aged 18 years and over currently in receipt of a direct payment to buy homecare services through an agency.
(e) The total number of clients aged 18 years and over currently in receipt of a direct payment to employ or engage a personal assistant.
Questions (f)-(i) relate to personal assistants.
(f) The total number of personal assistants currently recorded by your council as supporting adults aged 18 years and over through a direct payment arrangement. (This information might be held in a register, approved list, payroll/support service, direct payment monitoring process, or other council-held record.)
(g) The total number of those personal assistants in answer to question (f) recorded by your council as having an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where this information is held.
(h) The total number of those personal assistants in answer to question (f) recorded by your council as self-employed.
(i) Where a direct payment recipient wishes to engage a personal assistant on a self-employed basis, what evidence, checks or guidance does your council require or use before agreeing that the arrangement may be treated as self-employed rather than employed?