A direct payment gives more flexibility to change your support when you need to.  

Some examples 

1. You employ two PAs. One of them hands in their notice. You can now choose whether to offer the other PA additional hours or you can choose to employ another PA. Since there's no change in the PA hourly rate you can do this without talking to us. 

2. You use a care agency for some hours but have been unhappy with the level of service provided. After talking with the agency and seeing no improvement you decide to change agency. Providing any other agency doesn’t charge an additional rate you can give the current agency notice and purchase support from another agency of your choice. (If funding needs to be increased this would need to be discussed with us). 

3. Your PA is unable to support you today, but you have an important appointment that you can’t change. Your PA was going to provide transport to take you. You can use the one-off emergency facility in your direct payment to pay for a taxi to take you to and from your appointment.  

4. You sometimes use residential respite to give your family a short break. However, the residential placement is unable to take you due to an infection affecting some people staying there. It isn’t safe for you to go. Instead of using residential respite you can look at getting 24/7 support from your PA, and either stay at home while your family go away or look at an appropriate holiday let where you and the PA can stay. The costs would need to be like the cost of residential respite, or you would need to speak to us about it.