Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2001): Services for the Disabled - UK

INDEPENDENT SUCCESS: IMPLEMENTING DIRECT PAYMENTS

C. Dawson

York: York Publishing Services, 2000

Reports results of an evaluation of a pilot scheme to implement direct payments for disabled people in Norfolk. The research found that direct payments are a cost-effective means of service delivery compared with similar support costs from in-house service provision and agency support. However their introduction is complex. Within a social services department it requires practical operational changes, a shift in approach to the concepts of risk and control and a challenge to the culture of direct service provision.

MONEY TALKS? COMPETING DISCOURSES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DIRECT PAYMENTS

C. Pearson

Critical Social Policy, no.65, 2000, p.459-477

Analysis of use of direct payments for disabled people in a Scottish and an English local authority shows that in their present form they should not be seen as a panacea. Only some disabled people have access to them, and those using a council service are generally deemed ineligible. This group often includes people with learning difficulties. The implementation of the audit culture means that the disabled people themselves become the focus of tightening accounting practices. Finally, where a direct payments scheme offers the potential for local authority savings, it is implemented with alacrity. However its extension to people with high support needs is limited by the fear of additional costs being incurred by the council.

A WORKING SOCIAL MODEL? DISABILITY WORK AND DISABILITY POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

C. Barnes

Critical Social Policy, no.65, 2000, p.441-457

Suggests that for disabled people to achieve social justice, there is a need for work to be redefined, and for employers to be given incentives/placed under obligations to employ disabled people, and for the environmental barriers that disabled people encounter in the world of work to be tackled.