Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please could you provide me with the following for the financial year 2022/23:
Data requests
We would like to understand the progress in offering Individual Service Funds in your area.
To do this, we have been gathering data from local authorities with social care responsibility over the last 3 years and asking them 1 very simple question:
How would you describe ISF progress in your area?
1. ISFs are available.
2. ISFs being trialled/partial offer available.
3. ISFs not available.
Policy context
In simple terms an Individual Service Fund (ISF) is a personal budget that is held by an organisation (or micro provider) which has been nominated by or on behalf of the person and can be used to meet some or all of the outcomes that have been identified as part of a Care Act assessment as directed by the person (or their circle of support).
It’s an internal system of accounting within a service provider organisation that makes the personal budget (the weekly money from a local authority for a person or carers’ support) completely transparent to the individual or family. This helps provide for much more flexible support arrangements that can evolve quickly and easily over time as needs change.
An ISF is not a contract, it is an arrangement, developed by a service provider, to make itself more answerable to the person, as part of providing more flexible support to them. The approach helps with making best use of someone’s available budget.
Instead of being accountable only to the council, an ISF provider organisation is directly accountable to the person and their family, and this includes ensuring they regularly report back on how the available budget is being spent.