Overview of support for adults

When we complete an assessment, we look at how much help you need and work out how much we think that support should cost, which gives you a total budget.

We may be able to make a contribution to the cost of your support, and we will be able to let you know exactly how much you will have to pay when we have completed a financial assessment.

We then give you several options: 

• You can organise your care yourself. We call this a Cash Individual Budget. 
• You can choose someone else to organise care for you, though they may ask you to pay them for this. We call this an Individual Service Fund.
• You can choose to have the Council organise your care. We call this a Virtual Individual Budget.

A Cash Individual Budget gives you the ability to organise your own care. The council pays you an agreed amount of money. You can then hire the support service of your choice. That way they work for you and not for the Council. Even though the money for all or part of your support might come from an Individual Service Fund or a Virtual Individual Budget, you are the customer. You have a right to be listened to and your opinions should be respected. We are here to help you and will do everything possible to respect your needs.

You will need to do your homework if you want to organise things yourself. In Manchester you can speak to your Care Manager or the Self-Directed Support Team before you make a final decision. They can tell you the different choices available for you.

You can find out more in our pages on Planning Your Support and Paying For Your Support.