Ticket to independence

More than 3,600 disabled people are receiving direct payments from local authorities to enable them to buy personal care tailored to their needs so that they can live independently. Four in five authorities are now offering the facility.

The figures, collected by the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS), are the first reliable picture of implementation of the discretionary system introduced in 1997, under which funds may be given to disabled people aged 18-65 "willing and able" to purchase their own care.

The system was extended earlier this year to those over 65 and provision has been made in the Carers and Disabled Children Act, passed in July, for a further extension to 16-and 17-year-olds and those with parental responsibility for disabled children.

According to Sian Vasey, author of a new handbook on the issue, direct payments are a "golden opportunity" for disabled people. "They are the means by which we close the chapter of disability history called 'institutions' and move on to the part of the story where we get a crack at living just like everyone else."

Details of the ADSS survey are due to be released next week at the annual social services conference, being held this year in Edinburgh. The survey, conducted during the summer, covered all 171 social services authorities in England and Wales, where the system applies, and found that 136 had taken up the power to make direct payments. Of the other 35, all but nine were planning to follow suit this autumn.

Take-up by authorities was highest in London, at 94% of boroughs, and lowest in Wales, at 67% of unitary councils. There was evidence of greater enthusiasm among councils in the south. The authority with the highest number of users of direct payments was Hampshire, with 400, followed by Essex with 239 and Southampton with 133.

Of the 136 authorities making direct payments, 110 were offering them to all disabled people judged willing and able. However, 26 were excluding people with a learning disability and/or mental health problems.

Ray Jones, social services director of Wiltshire, who collated the survey returns, says many of the 26 pointed out they were looking to drop or at least limit their exclusions. As only 19 authorities were each making direct payments to more than 50 people, others stressed they were planning to move faster. "They recognised that they needed to take action to move on from small scale pilots, or recently introduced schemes with small numbers, to a wider availability and take-up," says Jones.

The new handbook on direct payments has been produced as part of the Rough Guide series, in collaboration with the National Centre for Independent Living. It is aimed at disabled people contemplating taking the plunge to seek a payment to employ a personal assistant (PA).

"The kind of things you can employ a PA to do may be personal, such as bathing and washing, getting dressed and eating, and also domestic, such as gardening, cleaning and driving," writes Vasey, who herself uses PAs for short periods each day. "Visually impaired people can employ them to read correspondence and help in the shops. People with learning difficulties may use them to asist with organising finances and menus. PAs can also assist with parenting duties, going on holiday and taking up the hobby of your choice."

The handbook, The Rough Guide To Managing Personal Assistants, is a humorous, warts-and-all account by what are described as "early settlers on the planet". One such settler, Beverly Ashton from Somerset, describes having recklessly taken on one assistant on the basis of a verbal reference - and a vague one at that.

"She turned out to be a completely useless employee who, in the six months she was with me, drove me nearly bonkers," says Ashton. "She lost my house key in less than 24 hours, she was constantly late on the irregular days when she turned up at all. She was indeed a very nice girl, who had a difficult early life, but struggling without the help I needed and worrying about her problems nearly finished me off."

Many early settlers are now seasoned employers of PAs. Before 1997, some direct payments were made by the government's independent living fund and a few were made "indirectly" by local authorities through third parties. Now, though, the stage is set for potentially rapid expansion.

Jones says social services departments need to draw in many more clients and make direct payments a mainstream opportunity for promoting independent living. "Direct payments are getting going. We should now be working with disabled people to increase the pace and speed up the take-up."

• The Rough Guide to Managing Personal Assistants is available at £7 plus £1.50 p&p from the National Centre for Independent Living, 250 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5RD (020-7587 1663)