Direct Payments (DPs) survey for Brighton & Hove City Council
Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) wanted to hear views and experiences from people who receive Direct Payments from them. The DPs help people or an adult/child that is cared for to receive financial support for their care needs. This might be employing a care worker or personal assistant to help with their day-to-day needs.
This survey builds on an earlier survey run in 2021 which asked how well the council’s services are working; what could be improved; and what would help to positively affect their quality of life.
The aims of the survey were to:
• To survey people across Brighton and Hove to understand their views and experiences of receiving Direct Payments.
• To achieve this via an email and postal semi-structured questionnaire.
• To summarise the demographic profile of people responding to the questionnaire.
• Using the data to propose ways in which the Direct Payment experience can be improved, whilst also acknowledging what is working well.
What did the survey tell us?
621 people in receipt of DPs were sent the survey with 127 questionnaires returned (20.5% response rate).
- The areas of highest satisfaction for how well the DP service was working was with the ‘Payroll and Service with Possability People’ (55.4% ‘very satisfied’ and 18.1% ‘satisfied’),
- The problems of recruiting and managing PAs was a common theme throughout the survey. 38.2% did not receive any advice or support regarding their employment of PAs.
- The findings regarding the setting up of the DP were encouraging, the awareness of support services is less so. 5.9% of people were not aware of any support services for DP users. Aside to ‘Possability People - Supported Bank Accounts and Payroll Service’, more than 40% were unaware of all the other support options.
- Word of mouth rather than a more coordinated approach seems to be the main source of PAs (reported by 53.8%). Moreover, increasing the pay to PAs is identified as the Number one priority area to improve.
Conclusion and recommendations for improvement
- Increased contact with Assessment council’s services including a dedicated social worker; and reference to the need to improve the financial elements – including Financial Assessments
- Better advice and information – this included advice regarding managing PAs; where to access training for PAs; as well as general support regarding using DPs, and who to contact.
- Access to PAs – respondents stated how hard it can be to find PAs; support for PAs is needed; and the need to pay PAs a reasonable amount.
