Direct Payments Prepaid Cards Consultation

Overview

Background

The Council is committed to continue widening its personalisation offer in Adult Social Care. Prepaid cards can be a great way of increasing flexibility and reducing the barriers to personal budgets. Whilst increasing choice for people, the Council benefits from a cost effective solution that enables them to focus resources on supporting those with more complex social care needs.

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames has been one of the leading local authorities nationally in the development of Self Directed Support; having implemented a Self Directed Support assessment model using supported self-assessment, resource allocation and support planning and brokerage in August 2008. The Council currently provides personal budgets to approximately 400 people in the form of a direct payment.

From autumn 2012, the Council wants to offer everyone who is eligible for a direct payment a prepaid card instead of people having to set up a separate bank account to receive their direct payments. People can then use the prepaid card to pay for goods and services to meet the social care needs identified in their support plan.

The card will work similar to a debit card and will be secured by chip and pin. This means it can be used securely for payments in person, over the phone or over the Internet. However, the prepaid card is not a credit card and can only be used as long as there is money in the account.

Vision

The aim of the prepaid card scheme is to promote people's independence by providing them with the right tools to manage their own support. Prepaid cards will provide the necessary flexibility to give people choice and control over the delivery and payment of the social care services and support identified in their support plan.

The vision for the prepaid care service is to:

• Enable as many people as possible to manage their own support

• Optimise choice and control over how, when and where people spend their personal budgets

• Maximise the independence of service users

• Ensure the best customer journey for individuals

• Reduce bureaucracy

• Reduce fraud

While prepayment cards are initially rolled out to direct payments users in Adult and Community Services, the service may be available to other areas of the Council at a later date.

Details of Consultation

The Council will be contacting all people currently in receipt of a direct payment and their carers directly to inform them of the consultation. Existing service users will receive a paper copy of the survey attached on this page.

We would like to hear from you with any concerns, comments or suggestions you may have about the proposals. All the information you provide will be considered and used to make sure the service is the best it can be.

You can do this through:

• Completing an on-line questionnaire; or

• Completing a paper questionnaire; or

• Attending a consultation event on either of the dates below

Consultation period extended

Since launching our consultation on Direct Payments Prepaid cards on the 1st June, we have received over 80 responses from service users and carers and a range of feedback from our partners in the voluntary sector. One of the main issues raised was that the consultation period was too short.

The consultation has therefore been extended by a further 3 weeks until Friday 20th 2012 to give more people a chance to respond. We have also arranged another consultation event in July to provide another opportunity for people to ask us questions directly.

Please see the Frequently Asked Questions document attached below for further information.

Consultation events:

Thursday 21st June 2012 from 17.30 to 19.30 in the Terrace Room, York House

Thursday 5th July 2012 from 9.30 to 11.30 in the Hyde Room, York House