Learning Disability Alliance Scotland

At the meeting of the full council on the 11^th of February, City of Edinburgh Council proposed that a consultation process be set up to establish a “fair and appropriate” Direct Payment rate.

We believe that 3 simple stages need to take place in order to achieve this aim.

1.        Establish the parameters

The requirements of CEC to achieve value for money is legitimate.  The initial aim of the care and support tender was to achieve a 10% saving.   The original specification for tender can be used to show the pre – process original hourly rate for support of £18.40

·         Based on a total cost of £8,404,036 [excluding sleep overs]

·         And  a total of 8,785 hours per week

And using the initial aim of 10% saving, we can show a new hourly rate of in the region of £16.50 as the original target. 

A further advancement of saving of between 2.5% and 5% would see a Direct Payment rate set in the region of £15.50 to £16.00

Western Isles Council has given a reprieve to the Local Area Coordination service.   Instead of giving notice to the service a three month long period of consultation has been established with a full council report going back to full council in June 2010.  

This comes after a long week’s campaign by service users, carers and organisations.  The importance of the service was emphasised in the difference that it makes to those that use the service, local councillors and MSPs were lobbied and a demonstration outside council Headquarters was held by carers and users.  The press and STV carried reports.

The National Local Area Coordination team provided advice and support.  LDAS lobbied councillors and provided information on various legal aspects of the Equality Impact Assessment.