When you contact us for support we will do an assessment of your needs. If this assessment shows that you are eligible for ongoing social care support we will use a Resource Allocation System (RAS) to work out an estimated budget – an estimate of the amount of money it will cost to meet your care needs each week.

What does the RAS do?

The RAS creates an estimate of the cost of your care which allows us to tell you as quickly as possible what sort of support you will need, so you can start planning your care.

The final amount will depend on individual circumstances and the availability and cost of services. This amount will be your personal budget and it may be more or less than the estimated budget.

Once you have your final personal budget, we can use it to buy services for you from our contracted providers – we call this commissioned care, or you can opt for a form of self-directed support, like a direct payment.

The options you can choose from include

• pay it as direct payments so you can buy your own services
• use it to buy services for you from our contracted providers, this will be discussed with you as part of the planning process
• organise a mixture of options 1 and 2, with some care from a DCC approved provider and organising some services yourself using direct payments

Read our factsheet about fair and affordable care to help you understand the way in which personal budgets are established when there may be different options for meeting your eligible needs.

Personal budgets for carers

Under the Care Act, Carers are entitled to have a personal budget where they have eligible needs for support following an assessment of their needs. This assessment is known as a Carer Health and Wellbeing Check and can be undertaken by Devon County Council, DPT (carers of people with mental health conditions) or Devon Carers.

A Carers personal budget is calculated through a conversation between the carer, the person working with them supported by a Carers Support Ready Reckoner which helps guide the conversation in what kind of personal budget is best suited to meet that Carers needs at that time.

Carers personal budgets are often, but not always, relatively small amounts of money that could be used for one off activities to promote the Carers wellbeing. They can not be used for buying respite or replacement care e.g. sitting services. The best source of information, advice and guidance on how Carers needs could be met is through a conversation with Devon Carers in the first instance.

Organising your support

After your assessment, we will talk to you about your personal budget and direct payments to organise your own services. A direct payment gives you the freedom to organise your services when and how you want them.

Help with organising your support

You can get help with managing your support and your budget from a friend or family member, or an independent organisation. You can also nominate someone to act on your behalf to manage employing a carer.

If you are concerned about managing your support, our Arranging Support Team or Care Direct can help you.

Care Direct (Customer Services Centre) on 0345 155 1007 or csc.caredirect@devon.gov.uk
Alternatively, you can e-mail the Arranging Support Team directly at

• East: astselfdirectedsupporteast@devon.gov.uk
• South: astselfdirectedsupportsouth@devon.gov.uk
• North: astselfdirectedsupportnorth@devon.gov.uk

More information on personal budgets and direct payments can be found on the Age UK website.