Can anyone advice what can be added as outcomes in the SDS budget apart from paying support staff their wages. We have managed account which is managed by LA It means it is still on my name but i can only use it for agreed payments basically only for paying salaries. There is always unspent money which is re claimed by LA
I would like to use the unspend funds
What can i suggest to LA and use the unspend money for outcones which would benefit my adult “child”
Thank you
Some chat about this here @julinka
How to use underspend - Budgets - SDS Forum (sdsscotland.org.uk)
I would suggest the starting point is to ask why the full budget is not being spent and to consider whether there are additional unmet needs that you could use the remaining funds on that would improve your adult child’s quality of life. This could be a regular break, attending an activity/event or some technology that would allow him to be more independent, active etc. There are some support planning tools here that might help to explore this: Support Planning | In Control Scotland (in-controlscotland.org)
You might be able to tie these in to the existing outcomes, but if you feel the outcomes are too limited then this might need to be addressed with the social worker. I don’t have experience of managed accounts and their limitations, but hopefully someone else can offer this.
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Hi there this is my biggest issue with SDS I have a huge underspend due to carers not being available etc and constantly have LA taking budget back the only way to get it to spend is by doing the forms again and adding in what you may think is useful I tried and failed and was rejected!! Hence they took £20k over the year!
Currently in same position as you trying to think what can be used to benefit my son yet receipts availablity etc need to be given???
Good luck x
‘Paying support staff their wages’ should not even be an outcome!
Outcomes are things like:
“Having a meaningful social life”
“Accessing the sports centre (or other services) so Jo can rock climb”
“Finding or creating a space that Jo can socialise in”
“Getting out of the house to exercise and find enjoyable things to do”
“Going to the pub”
“Going to concerts”
“Supporting Jo to live the life she chooses”
“Supporting Jo to make decisions”
“Develop and maintain effective communication systems for Jo”
…or whatever
These are the things we want. They are the outcomes, the things we are aiming for, the things we need support and resources to achieve.
The things we do to achieve these outcomes are things like pay for a support worker, pay for tuition, pay for noise dampening foam, room hire, etc. These spending decisions are the direct payment user’s to make. The things we do (the means to the ends) should never be listed among the outcomes. Who employs support workers because they want to employ support workers? That would be insane! Employing a support worker is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end. For some reason local authorities have great difficulty understanding the difference between means and ends.
Potentially, anything can be an outcome, if you and the local authority can agree on it.
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