Direct Payments in Hertfordshire: Choosing Your Own Care

The two assessments

It starts with a care needs assessment from Adult Care Services, which identifies what support is needed and the outcomes it should achieve. A financial assessment then works out what, if anything, you contribute. For care in your own home, the value of the home you live in is excluded. With assets over £23,250 you fund your care yourself; below that, the council calculates a means-tested contribution.

The prepaid card

Hertfordshire pays direct payments onto a prepaid account card, topped up on a fixed schedule, and you use it to pay for the support in your care plan. If managing the money yourself is not practical, you can choose someone else to look after the payments for you.

Direct payments must be spent on care and support that meets the outcomes in your care needs assessment. Within that, the choice is genuinely yours: employing a personal assistant, paying a regulated home care agency, or buying equipment that meets an assessed need.

The card cannot be used for things outside the care plan, and the council checks spending against the agreed outcomes. In practice that is rarely a problem when the plan is set up well at the start, which is where the free support service earns its keep.

The Hertfordshire Direct Payment Support Service gives free guidance on setting up and managing a direct payment: 01992 367297, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, or [email protected].

You can use a direct payment to pay a regulated home care provider, and many Hertfordshire families do exactly that: the council funding, with a provider the family chose themselves.

With Starling Homecare, that works the way all our care does. Visits start from 30 minutes, from £34, you receive a written quote before anything begins, and regulated home care is VAT exempt. Where a direct payment covers part of the cost, families can pay the difference privately, and we will always be clear with you about the numbers before you commit to anything.

Because we are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, using an agency through your direct payment also avoids the responsibilities that come with employing a personal assistant directly, such as payroll, insurance and cover.

If the council already arranges your care, you can ask to switch to a direct payment by speaking to your social care worker or calling Adult Care Services on 0300 123 4042. If you are new to care, the same number starts the care needs assessment.

For free, independent advice on money and care in Hertfordshire, HertsHelp on 0300 123 4044 is the right first call. And for the wider funding picture, including Attendance Allowance and NHS continuing healthcare, our care funding guide sets out the options in plain language.