Direct Payments in Residential Care Evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Direct Payments in Residential Care Evaluation
IRAS ID
144775
Contact name
Nicholas Mays
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Research summary
Direct Payments (DPs) have become a key mechanism by which people are enabled to meet their eligible social care
needs. These so called ‘cashforcare’ payments provide the person with cash rather than services so that people have greater choice and control over how their social care needs are met.
The number of users of Direct Payments for home (domiciliary) care has increased sharply in recent years reflecting a policy emphasis on ‘personalisation’. Following the Law Commission recommendation in 2011 that DPs should be extended to people living in residential settings, the Department of Health invited councils to become pilot sites trying out DPs for people in residential care. 20 councils expressed interest. The government has since decided that there will be national rollout of DPs in residential care from April 2016 so, of the 20 councils, 18 councils have now become ‘trailblazers’ for the programme.
The specific objectives of the evaluation are:
To understand the different ways in which DPs are being offered to residents of care homes and to examine the challenges arising from implementing DPs for users, carers, care home providers, and councils and their staff in trailblazer sites (process evaluation);
Social Care REC Form Reference:
14/IEC08/0011
IRAS Version 3.5
Date: 24/02/2014 5 144775/569992/27/5
extended to people living in residential settings, the Department of Health invited councils to become pilot sites trying
out DPs for people in residential care. 20 councils expressed interest. The government has since decided that there
will be national rollout of DPs in residential care from April 2016 so, of the 20 councils, 18 councils have now become
‘trailblazers’ for the programme.
The specific objectives of the evaluation are:
To understand the different ways in which DPs are being offered to residents of care homes and to examine the challenges arising from implementing DPs for users, carers, care home providers, and councils and their staff in trailblazer sites (process evaluation);
To assess the impacts of DPs in residential care on users and their families, care home providers and the provider market, and councils and their staff (impact evaluation); and To examine, as far as possible, the relative costs and cost effectiveness of different approaches to providing DPs for residential care, for both users and their families and local councils (economic evaluation).REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
14/IEC08/0011
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion