United Response strongly supports personal budgets, self-directed support, and the ability to give people true choice and control. They believe that individualized support is key to their approach. As such, self-direction is a natural progression. On disability service providers Melbourne you can learn more.

Individuals who have a personal income can find many amazing stories of people taking control of the lives they lead and being creative about how they provide support. From our work, we see how confused potential purchasers and their families are in this new world. Many people are afraid to take on the budget management responsibility.

They have been working in partnership with the Voluntary Organisation’s Disability Group(VODG) to develop a “Top Ten tips” guide to anyone who is looking for social care support.

This guide aims at helping you to identify what you should look for when choosing a service provider.

Ten top tips

1. What support do you need? Are you looking to have a support worker, or a personal aide (PA),? Will you hire them through an organization or directly?

2. Note your first impressions. You can gauge the future relationship with your support provider by having a few conversations. Is the provider keeping their word? Did they return your call as promised or could you contact them when you say you can?

3. Look at how they will structure your support package. Your support provider should spend some time getting to know your needs and desires. They should come up with a plan that is person-centered and then you will be given a contract to provide your support.

4. Consider how you support will be monitored, and whether it can be modified. Your support provider should perform an annual review of your service – sometimes called “person-centred reviews” – and you should lead it.

5. It is important to verify the price as well as what it contains. If mutually agreed upon, your support provider must confirm that the price is fixed.