FAQ

When you meet with your Care Co-ordinator ask if you are eligible for a personal budget. 

In some areas the NHS has set up pilot Personal Health Budgets, and you can ask your CPN about these. 

It is important to remember that eligibility is usually for people who have substantial and critical needs and that the Personal Budget is means tested.

You don’t have to hold any money yourself.  If your local authority is personalising the services that you use, it can mean that the services have to let you and the funders know how they spent money on supporting you. You might want to comment on how they are meeting your needs, and even ask for something different – but you don’t have to.

Funders understand that people who are not eligible for a personal budget will still need support to stay well. 

As Social Services departments put their personalisation plans into practice you will find that they are still funding some services for people who don’t get a personal budget. Of course, you can also pay for some personalised services yourself.

You don’t have to have a personalised budget as you can choose to receive services in the traditional way.  But you may notice that the services that you use offer you more choice in how things are done, and they will be able to show you how the money that is given to them is spent on services for you.

You need to do a self assessment, so that your funders can work out how much budget to offer you. 

Sometimes your Care Co-ordinator will help you and sometimes you may do the assessment with a Support Broker.  They will probably have some questions to prompt you to think about your needs, wants, desires and goals. It is a good idea to take your time in thinking about all aspects of your life so that you don’t miss something that might be important to you. 

When you have finished looking at your needs, funders can use your self assessment to produce and estimate of how much budget you need.

Under Fair Access to Care, Social Services departments have a legal duty to meet your needs.  If you believe that this isn’t being done, you or your Support Broker will be able to appeal. 

Currently there are different guidelines and rules in different areas.  For instance, some funders have expressed doubts about funding holidays.  Funders must believe that the budget is being used for something that will provide for your wellbeing and progress towards Recovery.

This varies from one region to another.  In some areas directories of services are being developed.  There will usually be someone who can help you through the process of doing a self assessment of your needs and this could be your Social Worker or a Support Broker.  The self assessment involves looking at your interests, wants, needs and desires.  When you have done this you will need to decide what is a priority and this will help funders to decide what your indicative budget should be.

When you know what indicative budget you have been offered you can use a Social Worker or a Support Broker who will know what services are available in your area and who can chat through your options.  Sometimes the budget may be held as a notional budget to show what the services that you use have costed and in other circumstances you will be involved in using and paying the money.

To help you choose how to meet your needs you can find information about Rethink services on this website.

At Rethink we are able to invoice you for services that you have used and we accept cheques.  You may soon be able to pay by direct debit.  There will also be the opportunity for you to receive personalised services from Rethink, which are paid for directly to us from your Council.  If you also use other services you will probably pay in the same way that you pay Rethink, or you may be able to use cash or a debit card.

Services that are popular should stay because plenty of people will use them and pay for them.  Services that don’t meet people’s needs and that aren’t popular will probably go, through lack of use.  Some services may look slightly different as they develop to access more mainstream buildings and services or as they offer a more flexible service.

Where services are used by a lot of people who don’t have a personal budget, they could still carry on because they may be funded as services which help to keep people feeling well.

You can decide to employ your own support using an agency or you may decide to advertise for your own worker.  Rethink is considering how we can help you. It may be useful to have a Rethink bank of staff that we employ who could do work with you or for Rethink to supply advice and information on recruitment and the legal implications of being an employer.

Rethink Human Resources may be able to run a payroll service on your behalf.

If your budget is held on your behalf at Rethink we will supply you with statements to explain how your budget has been used. But if you hold the budget yourself, it will be important for you to keep receipts for what you have spent. You could use a friend, relative or support worker to help you to put your receipts in order.

Kent County Council developed a plastic card which can be charged up with your budget so that you can either draw out cash or pay for services. You would then be sent regular statements. This card has been publicised elsewhere and might become popular.

It is likely that attending an adult education class will meet your needs and so you can use the personal budget to pay the college. If you need a smaller class which is tailored to people who have mental health problems then you may be able to pool your money with other people, so that your group can pay for a tutor and/or a venue for the class.

You will be able to split your budget to buy both services and to buy items that will help to support you in everyday life. It is up to you to work out how best to meet your needs with the allocated budget.

First of all, speak to the people who are providing your services as they will probably be able to change them to suit you.

If you are still not happy, speak to your Care Co-ordinator or your Support Broker and they can help you to make a complaint, or just to give notice to the services that you currently have. Then they can help you to choose something else.

Even if you don’t approach someone to tell them that you are not happy, there will be a regular review of your personalised services and at that point you will be able to discuss making changes.

We see you as the expert in your own needs and provide respite care services that suit you and the person that you care for.

We also provide a carers education and training programme which provides information, support and skills to improve quality of life for both carers and people with severe mental illness. Rethink involves carers in Members’ groups to provide peer support and a discussion forum, Rethink Talk.

You have a right to a Social Services assessment and at the moment may be offered a direct payment. Respite care may also be funded from the budget of the person that they care for.

It will give him or her a chance to look at the services that he or she is getting now and to decide whether they are what is really needed. Services should help the person that you care for to feel fulfilled and to move towards independence. The person that you care for may consult you on the assessment and on how to spend his or her budget.

Sometimes the person with mental health needs may feel confident to manage the budget and to account for what has been spent, but if this isn’t the case, the budget can be held by a third party on his or her behalf or it can even be held in the services that he or she uses. The important thing is that the money spent is accounted for and that the service user can see what has been used.

Yes you can be paid for services that you provide to the person that you care for, as long as you don’t live at the same address.

Rethink is responding to the personalisation agenda in each area and is looking at service provision as a whole to make sure that we offer services that people want. All our services are tailored to individual needs, giving service users the choice and control to take responsibility for their own recovery.

Sometimes we are creating new services e.g. brokerage, or joining up our services to offer a ‘one stop shop’.

Rethink services vary widely according to needs. They are flexible and will change as need changes. Examples of areas that Rethink cover includes: housing support services, community services, social enterprises, advocacy services, crisis care, respite care.

These web pages contain details of many of the services and there is also a services listing on Rethink’s main website. Rethink reaches out to the community by attending community events, using flyers, and posters. Rethink staff build relationships with mental health teams and other mental health providers which reinforces its brand.

Rethink offers quality services and they are competitively priced for the level of provision. Rethink staff are trained to a high level and receive good supervision. Rethink Quality Standards ensure that each service is working competently towards Recovery.

Rethink is the largest voluntary sector provider of mental health services with over 300 services across England.

Rethink is a user-led organisation with a majority of service users or carers on our board of Trustees. We are also the largest national membership charity, and place the experiences of people affected by mental illness at the heart of everything we do.

We combine the infrastructure, influence and added value of a large organisation with the flexibility and local knowledge to work with you to meet local needs in your area.

Find out more about commissioning Rethink services.

Rethink services are based in the community. Our workers meet service users at community venues and support service users to access mainstream services in the community. There are some discrete settings to cater for people who don’t feel ready to access mainstream venues.

Rethink is a user-led charity with service users forming a high proportion of members of the trustee board and on regional committees. As service users grow in confidence they often work as ‘experts by experience’ to help to plan services, to be involved as Quality Auditors of services, to work as volunteers welcoming newcomers or even running hobby groups, and they are involved in Service User Involvement Groups to advise on Rethink’s strategy and to provide feedback.