Customers & Carers Survey - Direct Payments Support Service Recommissioning

A colourful group of people, differently abled, some walking, some in wheelchairs or with mobility aids

The County Council is committed to giving customers choice and control; one method of enabling this is through direct payments, where the customer receives a cash allocation to spend in a way which they consider will meet their assessed care needs. Direct payment support services are required to ensure that people can receive the appropriate advice and support to make the best use of their money. They also support the council to ensure that direct payments are used lawfully and effectively.

The current contract for direct payment support services, comes to an end in February 2026. Independent Lives (our presentContinue reading

The current contract for direct payment support services, comes to an end in February 2026. Independent Lives (our present provider), is continuing to offer services unchanged until the current contract expires in February 2026. Under the current contract the Council pays Independent Lives to offer these free services to support people who receive direct payments:

Information & Advice about Direct Payments, provided by telephone or on their website.
Core Employment Service Independent Lives can help people to find and employ a Personal Assistant (P.A.)
Information and training for social workers, employers and P.A.’s, including training events and newsletters.

During April and May 2024, we spoke to council staff, voluntary and community sector groups, customers and carers, and groups of people with lived experience about current support services and their ideas about what might be needed in future from 2026 onwards. These conversations have informed the content of 3 surveys to test the initial feedback received earlier this year and gather more views.

This is the survey for customers and carers, and people with lived experience. There are also 2 separate surveys for professionals who work with direct payment support and the provider market. A link to this survey has been directly sent to those currently in receipt of a direct payment as well as being more widely promoted. What you tell us in our survey will be used to create events in the early autumn so that the voice of customers, carers and others who work with Direct Payments Support is included and used to help put together options for a better service in the future.

We are committed to enabling people to participate in the surveys as part of our engagement activities, if you have any queries please direct them to our team inbox at LLScommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk.

If you need some extra support completing this survey online:

This survey is online only, but if you need help to participate online you can get in touch with one of these organisations and someone will help you to complete it:

Alzheimer’s Society - via your usual contact or 0333 150 3456
Carers Support West Sussex – please contact carerengagement@carerssupport.org.uk , if you don’t have access to email, you can call your usual contact.
Independent Lives - via your usual contact or 01903 219482 option 3 or advice@independentlives.org

Alternatively, you can ask in your local library where you can access the following support:

Staff can support you to log onto one of the public computers and find the survey to complete yourself. You will need to bring details of the web-link so staff can help you locate the correct website to complete the survey.
Or, if you need more support, digital volunteers are based at some libraries and may be able to provide more support in completing the form. Digital volunteer sessions must be pre-booked and only take place in certain libraries and at specific times. You can enquire further about booking a volunteer session at a library by calling our Library Digital Support line 0330 222 3455. You may need to leave a message for someone to get back to you.

Accessibility and alternate formats

If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us via email at LLScommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk or by telephone on 01243 642121 and we will do our best to assist you. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 01243 642121.

Please note, you can use the Google Translate function to access this project in a range of different languages. The Google Translate widget can be found at the top left-hand side of the project page, where it sits just above the black West Sussex County Council ribbon.

For more information about the accessibility of this website, please see our Accessibility tab (opens in new window) at the foot of the page.