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Self-Directed Support

The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 places a duty on councils to offer people four choices as to how they receive their social care support. There is an assessment criteria for SDS and although each local authority has an obligation to provide SDS in accordance with the act, there are some differences between how each council is rolling out SDS.

Aberlour Childcare Trust has created some excellent information guides around “SDS” including Self-directed Support Parent User Guide and It’s all about you – a children’s guide to understanding about choice and control through Self-directed Support.

Option What this means
Option 1 You can choose to receive the funds as a Direct Payment so you can organise and pay for the support or services chosen by you/your child, for example, by buying services from a provider such as Aberlour, or employing your own staff.
Option 2 Your budget is made known to you and you choose the types of services or provider you wish to support you/ your child, while the council or a third party, e.g. Aberlour, manages the budget or payments for you. This is sometimes called an individual service fund.
Option 3 You choose for your local council to arrange the necessary support for you/your child. While some decisions will be made by the council, they will still endeavour to maximise the degree of choice and control available to you.
Option 4 You can choose a mixture of options, for example, your council may manage the majority of your budget to organise and pay for the services you want, while you manage a small part of the budget for accessing community activities.