Page 24 - TLAP Beyond Direct Payments

Beyond Direct Payments
Given the way in which much of modern life is organised it is perhaps surprising that no such solution is in place that allows:
• people to see their budget online
• people to see who can offer them support online
• services and local community group to offer support online
• people to track their spending online
• systems to gather data on how personalisation is working in practice.
In fact, an effective internet-based solution might remove the primary barrier for Individual Service Funds – the inability of the funder to trust the person and the support organisation to design the best support solution between them.
Moreover, as we can see in the PHB Choices box, such support solutions already exist. Although, such an internet-based infrastructure will still come with challenges:
Ownership – Too often local funders have been exploited by providers offering systems which have created technological dependence rather than networked solutions. However, not only has the NHS already created a solution which could be used, local municipalities in Finland have co-created a system with the global corporation Digia, where the municipalities own the essential software.
Control – Internet technology is neutral on questions of value. It is possible to create systems which are in exible and where spending decisions would require multiple sign- offs, just as it’s possible to create systems which are exible and enable quick decisions to take advantage of emerging opportunities or to respond quickly to problems. However using such a platform would lead to more open discussions about the underlying principles, agreed national norms and the opportunity to test different levels of exibility.
Openness – Current commissioning systems have high entry thresholds, damaging community development. An internet-based system needs not just to pay attention to reducing burdens for people and families, it also needs to make it easy for micro-enterprises and others to get onto the system. Many current systems focus too much on the internet
as a marketing tool for services; instead we need a low-cost enabling funding system that makes it easy for people, social workers, case coordinators and supporters to join in and to see what is going on.
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