Further Information

A small number of children and young people need additional and individual support to enable them to access learning activities, to be included within their education setting and to achieve well. These children and young people will have an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Young people or parents of children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan can request a Personal Budget once Torbay Council has confirmed that it will prepare a draft EHC Plan. If you already have an existing Education, Health and Care Plan, or Statement of SEN, you can request a personal budget at your Annual Review. A Personal Budget can be issued as a Direct Payment.

For further information read our Personal Budgets for Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Torbay (quick guide) by either clicking the title above or from the downloads section on the right hand side of this page. You may also find our Personal Budgets & Direct Payments webpage useful.

A Direct Payment is another way of receiving the support that you are assessed as needing in the care of your child / young person would need to consent as a way of a Special Educational Need or a disability. It is the money that the Children’s Disability Service can give you to buy the services your child needs, as stated in the Care Plan. From the age of 16 your young person would need to consent to a direct payment as a way of meeting their needs.

For further information please visit www.torbay.gov.uk/direct-payments.

You may also find our Personal Budgets & Direct Payments webpage useful.

Personal Budgets can also be called self-directed support. This gives the young person more choice and control over how their social care needs are met. They will be supported to complete a self-assessment questionnaire to tell adult services the kind of things they need support with. The young person can do this with support from staff, family, friends or an advocate. Adult social care will then estimate how much money the young person may have to spend on their support and how much, if any, Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust (TSDFT) will contribute towards this. This will be the young person’s Personal Budget.

What is a Personal Budget?

A personal budget is a sum of money given to an individual if they are eligible for social care support. They can choose to have their personal budget paid to them directly (direct payment) or they can ask Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to arrange all or part of these services for them. The care manager will explain how personal budget can be used.

What will happen if your needs change?

TSDFT will regularly review the outcomes that have been achieved with the person and help them to update the support plan. If the young person’s needs change at any time, please contact the appropriate health and social care team.

You may also find our Personal Budgets & Direct Payments webpage useful.

The Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) programme is a way for people who need lots of help with their personal care and their healthcare to get the support that is right for them. If the young person is having difficulties in finding the right type of care and support IPC could help people to stay independent for longer. IPC could also help the person to get the right support at the right time so that they do not need to go into hospital or residential care.

IPC is about care and money

Care – the care that the person needs will be written down in a person centred health and care plan. The person will be at the centre of the plan and the decision making. The care plan will say how the person’s health and care needs will be met. The care manager, family and circle of support can help to write the plan.

Money – the person will be told how much it will cost for their health and care support needs to be met. The person will be able to say how they think this money should be spent on them. This is called a ‘capitated payment model’. The things that are included in this are social care support, medication, doctors, district nurses, visits to the hospital and treatment in the hospital. Some of this money could be given to the person as a Personal Health Budget or a Social Care Budget.

This means that support and activities can be purchased that will help the person to feel better and stay well.

For further information on IPC: www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ipc/.

You may also find our Personal Budgets & Direct Payments webpage useful.

A Direct Payment is another way of getting the support that the person is assessed as needing. TSDFT is able to give the money to the person so they can buy the services that they need instead of the Trust arranging care and support services for them.  This means that they will have greater control as to how their social care needs will be met. The person will also be able to choose who supports them, how they are supported and when they are supported. There are some things that cannot be bought with the Direct Payment. These are services or support from a close relative who lives in the same household; for instance a parent, husband, wife, brother or sister, except in exceptional circumstances.  If the young person is already receiving support from Children’s Services and/or meets the eligibility criteria for adult social care then it may be possible for the young person to have a Direct Payment. The social worker/care manager will talk about Direct Payments when they have assessed the young person’s social care needs and that it is has been agreed that support is needed.

Things you can't buy with Direct Payments

• You cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol
• You cannot use your Direct Payment for gambling
• You cannot buy support from a member of your family who is living in the same house as the person who is receiving the Direct Payment except in exceptional circumstances (see below)

Exceptional circumstances are

• For reason of ethnicity or religious belief, specific limitations apply to who may acceptably be employed to deliver the care, and there is no likelihood of being able to recruit an appropriate carer locally.
• That delivery of personal care by a third party would cause genuine distress to the cared for person.
• Care needs are intermittent and unpredictable, and recruitment or use of an agency to meet such needs is impracticable.
• Substantial effort at recruitment has been unsuccessful due to exceptional local workforce pressures or geographical isolation.
• This was the only practicable way of meeting the care needs during a temporary breakdown of other service arrangements
• Your key worker/social worker will decide if the criteria for exceptional circumstances are met. If the decision is that there are exceptional circumstances this decision will be subject to regular review. 

Direct Payment Card 

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a new way of managing Direct Payments – Direct Payment Card. Anyone who is offered a Direct Payment through adult services will be issued with a Direct Payment Card. A Direct Payment Card looks like credit card or debit card and works in a very similar way. The Trust will pay a sum of money onto the card which will then allow the card holder to pay for the services they require to meet their social care needs. The young person (or their representative) will be able to manage their money through online banking. The amount of money paid onto the card is calculated in the same way as a Direct Payment. With a Direct Payment Card the young person does need to open a bank account as the money is managed by the company who provide the cards. Records will still need to be kept as the Trust has a legal responsibility to make sure that the money is spent correctly and meets the person’s social care needs. With a Direct Payment Card the Trust will be able to look at statements on the computer so only receipts are required. This reduces the amount of paperwork that needs to be provided to the Trust. Please ask the Transitions Coordinator in adult services for a leaflet.

You may also find our Personal Budgets & Direct Payments webpage useful.

SENDIASS Torbay offers free, accurate, up to date and impartial resources and information about the law on special educational needs and disability. This covers:

• Education, health and social care
• National and local policy
• The Local Offer
• Your rights and choices
• Your opportunities to participate
• Where you can find help and advice
• How you can access this support

For further information please visit www.sendiasstorbay.org.uk.

Where people are not able to fully participate in their assessment the Care Act 2014 says that social care services have a duty to arrange independent advocacy for adults as part of their own assessment and care planning and care reviews and to those in their role as carers. The guidance goes on to say that ‘It also applies to children who are approaching the transition to adult care and support, when a child’s needs assessment is carried out, and when a young carer’s assessment is undertaken’ (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, 2014; section 7.2). Devon Advocacy Consortium is the current provider used for access to Independent Mental Health Advocacy.

Young people, who are 16 years of age or over, should be able to access benefits and allowances, dependant on circumstance, directly from The Department for Work and Pensions.  

Your parents may have previously recived Disability Living Allowance (DLA) on your behalf, but this will have to change because DLA is only for children under 16. Your DLA will stop and you'll need to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) instead - even if you have a 'lifetime' or 'indefinite' award for DLA. You won't automatically move over to PIP. 

If you are in higher education (University) and have a disability that affects your ability to study you can apply for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) 

If you’re 16 or over and your illness or disability affects how much you can work, you can apply for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). 

If you stay in full time education or training and your parents get Child Benefit and/or Child Tax Criedit, the only additional benifits you can claim are Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). 

If you have assessed care and support needs, care and support charges are not free and a financial assessment is undertaken to see how much, if anything, the young person is able to pay depending on financial circumstances. Please note charges can only be made once the young person is 18 years of age.

Young people who remain in approved full time education or training are unlikely to have a charge as the income is still held by the parent/guardian. However there may be a contribution dependant on any other income or savings held and taking account of any additional disability related expenditure plus any household expenses which are the sole responsibility of the young person.

If the young person is in receipt of benefits and/or allowances a financial assessment is completed. The financial assessment takes into consideration all income and savings, but we will also consider any additional disability related expenditure and any household expenses which are the sole responsibility of the young person. This financial assessment is normally completed in the home of the young person and with thier legal representative (or anyone else the young person would like to have with them).

At the point of transition if the young person requires accommodation for whatever reason, enquiries can be made through the Housing Options Team which has access to accommodation for young people as well as information about private rented accommodation. Where the individual’s accommodation needs are more complex, the adult social care worker can refer to the specialist housing pathway. This will include specialist accommodation with support and Extra Care housing.

For further information please visit www.torbay.gov.uk/housing.

For Housing support contact Community Help Hub | TorbayHelpHub

You may also find Choosing where to live as an adult with SEND | Torbay FIS Directory (openobjects.com) helpful.

Relationships are a necessary part of healthy living, but there is no such thing as a perfect relationship.  

All types of relationships, from people you know at school, college or work and  freindships  to romantic relationships with girlfriends or boyfriends, are able to benefit, enrich and add enjoyment to your life. 

However, these same relationships can cause discomfort, upset and sometimes even cause harm.

Rise Above, has lots of video clips about things that matter to young people especially in social situations, like the What is Consent? video below

PANTS explains that private parts are private and talks about personal boundaries. Steph teaches Ash and Jim that it’s OK to say “no” if you don’t want to do something, and they discuss different ways of saying “no”.

Please visit the "Are you OK?" website to learn more about abuse and violence within relationships

Dangers of Social Media

You may also find it useful to visit our webpage on the awareness of possible dangers of using social media

Contraception

Contraception refers to the methods that are used to prevent pregnancy. 

What is contraception? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)