Restrictions on how much families getting direct payments can offer personal assistants (PAs) could be “unlawful”, says a lawyer.
Direct payments are budgets that councils give to families to make their own care arrangements.
Barrister Steve Broach wrote on Twitter that restrictions on how much families can pay PAs “can be challenged through judicial review”.
Mathieu Culverhouse is leading legal challenges to make direct payments more flexible
Broach made his comments after charity Think Local Act Personal and the Local Government Association published a survey.
The research showed that families were struggling to recruit and retain PAs.
Struggle to recruit and retain PAs
Around 70,000 people in England employ PAs.
The survey found recruitment and retention are getting harder. Low pay and poor terms and conditions are cited as the main causes.
The pressures imposed by the pandemic and a shortage of workers throughout social care have also hit the availability of staff.
The online survey of 995 people found that more than three in four (77 per cent) who needed to recruit a PA had found it more difficult.
Better pay elsewhere
More than two-thirds said people were taking other kinds of employment with better pay.
And up to 59 per cent believe it is harder to find PAs with the right skills, values or training.
Mathieu Culverhouse is a human rights lawyer with Irwin Mitchell.
He said the firm is “supporting families challenging direct payments policies”.
The legal challenges could have “far-reaching implications for others facing a lack of flexibility in the system”, he added.
Charity seeks improvement for PAs
Think Local Act Personal is a partnership of more than 50 organisations that are committed to transforming health and social care.
The partnership includes central and local government, social care providers, the NHS, and the voluntary and community sector, as well as people with lived experience.
Martin Walker is a policy advisor with the organisation.
He said he hopes the survey will “stimulate some improvement for personal assistants and their employers”.
Councillor David Fothergill chairs the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board.
He said the findings highlight “the continued issue all areas of social care currently have with finding and keeping staff”.
Related:
- Carers need living wage, mum tells Lords
- Mum battles to raise carers’ benefit
- Charity claims carers don’t want wage
Published: 6 August 2022
