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What is Putting People First?

The Government and local councils want to help people stay healthy and living independently for as long as possible. Putting People First is about giving people more choice and control over how they get the support they need to do this.

Watch and listen to a four minute overview of Putting People First.

Putting People First means:

  • having more choice and control in your life
  • better support for carers
  • making sure you get the right help at the right time
  • you knowing exactly how much you will have available to spend
  • support that is tailor-made to meet your needs
  • a range of excellent, quality services provided by highly skilled staff
  • easy access to information, advice, support and advocacy.

The Government wants all councils to have made good progress by 2011. We are starting the change now.

Councillor Mel Shepherd Putting People First quote

What's new

Occupational Therapy conference November 2009

Find out more about the presentation by John Bolton of the Department of Health to the OT conference.

Personal Budgets DVD

Watch our new DVD about Personal Budgets online.

Self Directed Support

See the latest news on Self Directed Support.

Support and review plans

The Self Directed Support team need your views on the draft support and review plans.

Care providers and commissioners event report

The Putting People First – report of the care providers and commissioners event – April 2009 is available to download:

Report of the care providers and commissioners event – 'Self Directed Support: new horizons, new opportunities’ - April 2009 [PDF 532KB] pdf logo

New Putting People First staff newsletter

The June 2009 Putting People First staff newsletter is now available:

Staff roadshows

11 staff roadshows were held in September and October 2008. We were asked many different questions at the Putting People First staff roadshows. We've produced a summary of all the questions asked and our answers.

Key messages

We have put together a summary of the key messages we've received from all stakeholders involved in Self Directed Support.

Assessment questionnaire

Thanks to everyone who gave their view on a new title for the questionnaire that decides what support service users need, and what their personal budget will be. The clear 'winner' is the 'Self Directed Support Assessment'. When the assessment form is finished it will be available to download from this site.

Right to control

The right to control is about disabled people having control over certain state support they receive that they need to go about their daily lives. The government wants to shift the balance of power from the state to the individual. The Welfare Reform Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will help to bring this about. For more information, and to take part in the consultation, see the Office for Disability Issues website.

Being the Boss

Being the Boss is a support and information sharing website giving advice and information to disabled people who employ their own Personal Assistants (PAs). For more information visit the Being the Boss website.

Self Directed Support reference groups

The Self Directed Support (SDS) team are establishing reference groups to provide advice and support to the SDS project. People will be able to get involved and influence the project in a variety of ways, according to how much input they want and how much time they can give.

For more information about the reference groups, and to find out how to get involved, see the Get Involved page.

Common questions

We know that service users, carers and professionals have lots of questions about Putting People First. Our new Common questions page provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. So before writing to us or calling us, take a look - it could be that someone has already asked us and saved you the trouble.

Disabled Person’s Registration Card

Nottinghamshire County Council has introduced a Disabled Person’s Registration Card, thought to be the first of its kind in the country. The card is to help people with a hidden disability access special facilities provided across Nottinghamshire.

More information on the card and an application form are available at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/disabledpersonsregistrationcard

As the various projects develop we will be adding more information to these pages. Please check back regularly for the latest updates.

Contact us

If you have any queries about the Putting People First programme then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Email: selfdirectedsupport@nottscc.gov.uk

Write: Self Directed Support Team, C2.78, County Hall, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7QP

Telephone: 0115 977 3234

You can also visit our blog where you can ask questions and join in the debate about Putting People First. www.puttingpeoplefirst.info

Mick Burrows

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Publications

Our most popular publications are:

Service user conference report [PDF 350KB]

Information sheet [PDF 1.2MB]

Staff newsletter [PDF 3.2MB]
A good introduction to Putting People First.

Individual Budgets Evaluation Network (IBSEN) [Word 38KB]
A summary of the evaluation of the Individual Budgets pilot programme.

Newsletter for service users and carers - December 2008 [PDF 1.5Mb]

Rough guide to personalisation - Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) - December 2008 [PDF 960Kb]

For all our publications see our publications page.

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