Direct Payments

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Conference
2002 National Disabled Members' Conference
Date
5 July 2002
Decision
Carried as Amended

The London Regional Disabled Members’ Committee is concerned at the various ways in which the direct payments schemes are set up and run locally and nationally. All direct payments schemes should be properly funded, so that the same level of support can be obtained regardless of where you live. All schemes should be set up following the guidelines set out by the National Centre for Independent Living.

All schemes should be set up and controlled using the knowledge and expertise of local groups of disabled people, local groups should also be directly involved in the management and monitoring of their local schemes. This would ensure that the right services were being given/offered to the user of the scheme.

This is vital to make the scheme work successfully and that the right support services are used to deliver support to the disabled person. Local authorities need to work with disabled people’s organisations to ensure that this vital role is carried out in the community.

This scheme can give the vital support to a disabled person to take and keep some control over how they do things in their life.

Conference calls on the National Disabled Members’ Committee and the Affiliated Political Fund to work with the National Centre of Independent Living to:

1)Check the current level of services provided nationally and what groups are involved in running the direct payments scheme and publish examples of good practice to all UNISON branches with guidance that shows how support could be used to improve direct payments to disabled members;

2)Campaign for a direct payments scheme to be set up using the guidelines set out by the National Centre of Independent Living;

3)Campaign with organisations of disabled people to call upon national governments to increase spending on community care to recognise this as an essential, fundamental need of disabled people. Further, this Conference agrees that, if necessary, we would support an increase in taxation to fund such a development.