The Law Commission recently recommended expanding direct payments to residential care, and the Department of Health has chosen to explore this by supporting the development of ‘test sites’ in partnership with local authorities.

The White Paper ‘Caring for our future: reforming care and support’, committed to:

“develop, in a small number of areas, the use of direct payments for people who have chosen to live in residential care to test this approach.”

Currently, direct payments only apply in community care. They are used successfully to give individuals and their carers better control over the care they receive. 

Download Letter to Directors of Adult Social Services: Developing the use of direct payments in residential care, which contains more information, and an expression of interest form that must be completed and returned to scp-personalisation@dh.gsi.gov.uk, by 5 October 2012.