Role of Support Brokers

Social Services have changed the way that they support adults nationally.

If you have been assessed as eligible for services from the council and your care manager has agreed an amount that you are able to spend, called your Individual Budget, to organize that support yourself then a support broker may be useful for you.

We at Support Horizons are currently only able for people who are eligible for support from Wokingham Borough Council.

A Support Brokers' role is in helping people plan and organizes any support they need to be independent. Support Brokers ensure that the service user is fully involved, and in control throughout the process of choosing a care package and its delivery. They also try to ensure that any agreed services are value for money. A broker does not necessarily have to coordinate all of the support a person needs, but only the aspects the person says that they need support with.

The support broker does not replace the role of the care manager who has statutory responsibilities and will still manage the day to day issues involving the person.

The Support Broker can be someone who acts independently of the council and providers and can be requested by the client to help with any or all of the following:
Accessing an assessment of their care needs
Helping in the support planning process
Putting together a support plan that fits the person's needs
Initiating the plans
Reviewing the services that the person receives
Building personal networks and/or helping the person to do so
Mediating and solving any issues that arise along the way
Helping and advising the service user
Advising on flexible approaches to independent living
How the Self-Directed Support Process will work
The person does their own self assessment - or contacts a care manager for an assessment.
The care manager says how much money they are eligible to in order to meet their needs. This money is the person's Individual Budget or Resource Allocation.
If the person needs a broker, this is agreed.
The person works out their support plan - with help if they need it.
The care manager checks and signs off the support plan if it is a good plan.
The person gets their Individual Budget and organises their support.
If the person wants someone else to organise it for them, a family member might help. But they could also ask a trust, a support provider that would hold their Budget as an Individual Service Fund, or the care manager.
The person and the care manager review the plan, perhaps after a year.

At Support Horizons we acknowledge the importance of family and friends of the person we assist. We want to invite and encourage your active support for a positive future for the person we assist; we do not in any way seek to replace you in the person's life. We recognize that you may disagree with us or be dissatisfied with the support we provide; thus, we accept responsibility to: respond to your concerns about the person's safety and well being; negotiate openly with you in search of mutually satisfying outcomes.

We realize that you and the person we assist may have different, perhaps even conflicting, ideas about what is possible and desirable for the person; in the event of these differences we agree:

To uphold the importance of mutually respectful relationships among family members;
To assist you to negotiate a satisfactory resolution to the conflict, if our help is acceptable to the person we assist and to you;
If the conflict is serious and we cannot resolve it, we will maintain respectful contact with all parties but honor the choice of the person we assist.