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. The incumbent provider -Continue reading
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. The incumbent provider - Independent Lives - 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 the provider market. There are also 2 separate surveys for customers and carers and professionals who work with direct payment support.
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 please direct them to LLScommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk via Contract Finder.
Accessibility and alternate format
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.
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Survey web browser compatibility
Please use one of the browsers below when completing the survey to ensure it looks and works as it should:
· Chrome version 86 and above
· Firefox version 78 and above
· Microsoft Edge version 86 and above
· Safari version 14 and above
