Direct payments: Answering frequently asked questions

Questions

1. What is a direct payment?
2. Why direct payments?
3. Who can get them? What can they be used for?
4. How will direct payments improve things?
5. How do we know direct payments actually work?
6. How would you set up a direct payments scheme?
7. How can the money for schemes be secured when it's tied up elsewhere?
8. What are direct payment support services and how can local authorities develop effective partnerships with them?
9. How can schemes be publicised and promoted?
10. How can you ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible?
11. What training might give me more confidence in working with direct payments?
12. What about promoting payments to minority ethnic and other marginalised groups?
13. How do you introduce the idea of direct payments to service users? How does the assessment process work?
14. What about gaining consent?
15. Is employing a personal assistant complicated?