Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for people receiving direct payments
Advice for people who buy care and support through a direct payment, as well as local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and those who provide care and support.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guidance sets out the main messages for individuals and organisations that can support planning and help slow the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) as the outbreak progresses across the country.
It’s accompanied by additional guidance, mostly aimed at direct payment holders, that directly responds to questions and concerns previously raised by:
- direct payment holders
- personal assistants
- charities and organisations that support them
Updates to this page
Last updated 24 February 2022 + show all updates
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Updated 'Using direct payments: guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants following the announcement of the living with COVID-19 plan' to reflect new government guidance on self isolation policy if you test positive for COVID-19.
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Updated 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants' to reflect the latest guidance on the COVID-19 booster programme, travel and self-isolation, and the extension of the free PPE scheme until 2023.
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Updated to include guidance on self-isolation that came into effect on 16 August.
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Updated to meet step 4 guidelines on the correct use of PPE and using direct payments to buy PPE.
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Update to 'Guidance for local authorities and clinical commissioning groups in the delivery of direct payments and personal health budgets' to reflect the lifting of restrictions as part of step 4 of the roadmap.
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Updated 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants' in line with the lifting of most legal restrictions to control COVID-19 from 19 July 2021, as we move to Step 4 of the COVID-19 roadmap.
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Updating guidance to show the supply of free PPE to all of Adult Social Care, is until the end of March 2022.
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Updated 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants (easy read)' with new version. Page 30 now says: 'Anyone who has a direct payment can access regular testing.'
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Added 'Direct payments and personal health budgets' easy read.
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Updated the attachment 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants' and easy read, and the attachment 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: the most important things to know'. The updates reflect current national policy and add sections on mental health support, accessing the winter flu vaccination and testing.
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The document 'Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers' has been changed to 'Guidance for local authorities and clinical commissioning groups in the delivery of direct payments and personal health budgets.' This guidance is no longer aimed at people receiving direct payments (as separate guidance has been issued on this), and now is aimed at commissioners and local government only. The easy read version of 'Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers' has also been removed.
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Updated 3 attachments: 'Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers', 'Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers (easy read)' and 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants'. Updates reflect that the self-isolation period for people with coronavirus symptoms has changed to 10 days rather than 7 days.
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Page 3 of the document 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants (easy read)' has been updated to say that if you can’t talk to anyone, you can still use your direct payment in a different way to make sure you still get the care and support you need during COVID-19. Just make sure you keep notes of how you spent your direct payment differently during this time so that the council or clinical commissioning group can understand this.
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Removed following paragraph from 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants': 'You should keep a temporary record of the shift patterns of your PAs for 21 days. If NHS Test and Trace ask for this data, you should provide it to them. This could help contain clusters or outbreaks.'
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Added easy read document 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants'.
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Edited HTML publication 'Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants'. Added information about keeping a temporary record of the shift patterns of PAs for 21 days.
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The document ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): Q&A for people receiving a personal budget or personal health budget’ has been updated and renamed ‘Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: full guidance for people receiving direct payments and personal assistants’. Changes to this document include the addition of case studies, and there are new sections on PPE, testing and the flexible of use of direct payments. Two other documents have been added: ‘Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers (easy read)’ and ‘Using direct payments during the coronavirus outbreak: the most important things to know’. The document ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for people receiving direct payments’ has been renamed ‘Guidance for commissioners, people receiving direct payments and care providers’. There are no other changes to this document.
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The guidance attachment and the Q&A attachment have been updated to make sure they're consistent with the latest PPE guidance from Public Health England, in particular what PPE should be worn during a time of sustained COVID-19 transmission. Also, questions have been added to the Q&A attachment on footwear, the use papers towels and responsibility for paying for PPE.
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First published.