'Personalised Budgets & Direct Payments' 11 May 2007 - Sofia, Bulgaria
In the last decade service provision for people with disabilities has changed rapidly. Central themes in the disability policy in many countries are: awareness raising, empowerment, de-institutionalization and personalized services.
EASPD as important network from service providers is aware of what often is called the paradigm change. The last years discussions in EASPD are centered on the theme: person centered services. Different aspects were subject of conferences and discussions in the past three years. When talking about person centered services as basic assumption for today’s services the discussion about the payment of services is directly connected.
Since many years in several countries a system for direct payments, personal assistance budgets or individualized payments are introduced, sometimes as experiment, in other situations as the next step for financing services. This means that a budget is given not to the service provider but directly to the person with a disability, who then buys/contracts its own support.
Whatever the direction in a country will be it is a fact that person centered services are required by service users and that direct payments and personalized budgets are increasingly important and challenging for service providers.
Now EASPD offers all stakeholders a unique chance to get the last information from different countries and different perspectives.
During the seminar EASPD wanted to:
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Map the developments in the different countries
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Provide service providers with information about consequences and conditions
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Make clear the challenges for service providers
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Inspire service providers in finding solutions for tomorrow
- Open a forum for service providers in taking initiatives facing the needs of people with special needs and own budgets
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Contribute to discussions about new patters for funding services
Report by Mineke Hardeman, Chair of the Conference