Self Directed Support
What is Self Directed
Support?
Who can get it?
How do I get it?
Further information
What is Self Directed Support?
Self Directed Support lets you arrange some or all of your support yourself instead of receiving services arranged by your local authority social work or housing department. It is not an additional benefit but a way in which your support is managed.
The local authority will either make a Direct Payment to you which you can use to buy services or in some cases will commission services under your direction.
Self Directed Support allows you to receive the support you need from a provider you have chosen, helping to increase the flexibility, choice and personal control of your care arrangements.
With Self Directed Support, you can arrange all of your support yourself if that is what you wish, or a Support Organisation can help you to manage your support.
Self Directed Support can be used to buy services from an agency, a voluntary organisation, a local authority that sells its services, or to employ private care workers, or a combination of these things. Scottish Government guidelines state that you can only employ a member of your own family in exceptional circumstances.
Who can get it?
If you have had an Assessment of your Care Needs and have been assessed as needing services, you are very likely to be eligible for Self Directed Support. For exceptions to who can receive it, please see the National Guidance on Self Directed Support (Annex B, Section 5).
National Guidance on Self Directed
Support
External link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/07/04093127/3
How do I get it?
You need to arrange an Assessment of your Care Needs, or if you have already had one and have been assessed as needing services, contact your Social Worker to ask about Self Directed Support.
Whether or not you receive Self Directed Support makes no difference to your eligibility for services, prioritisation and waiting times, or the cost of services. Everyone who receives services from the local authority receives a Financial Assessment.
Further information
You can find details for your local Support Organisation on the Self Directed Support Scotland website.
Self Directed Support Scotland
External link: http://www.selfdirectedsupportscotland.org.uk/
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last updated 03/05/2012
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