What should be in your support plan?
You can complete your plan by yourself, along with family, friends or someone else of your choice. You can also ask your social worker or support staff.
There is no set format for planning. Your plan does need to set out:
- what is important to you
- what are your specific, intended outcomes
- how will you be supported
- how will you use your individual budget
- how will your support be managed
- how will you stay in control
- action plan
Once your plan is agreed, your suggested (indicative budget) becomes your individual budget for the year.
If your situation changes significantly, your budget can be reviewed to take account of the changed circumstances.
How have people used their individual budget?
Your support plan is unique to you. Your individual budget can be spent on anything that helps your outcomes to be achieved; so long as it is legal and has been agreed in the support plan.
Support can be arranged in lot of ways.
People have used their budget to employ a personal assistant through a direct payment, or chosen a support organisation, or a council provided service.
Some people chose different options that helped them meet agreed outcomes – help with housework, ironing or gardening services or support to go on holiday.
So long as it is assessed that the identified expenditure will enable the person to achieve their agreed outcomes, the plan will be agreed.
It is important to note that:
- Just because something is agreed in one person's plan, it doesn’t automatically get agreed for someone else. This is because plans are individual to each person.
- Individual budgets can only be spent on items, equipment or support where it is agreed that this will enable the person to achieve the outcomes they have agreed with their social worker.I
- If you choose a council provided service as part of your support, the cost of this service is deducted from your budget. This is because the council does not sell its services. For this reason, you can’t get a direct payment to buy council services.