Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to developing self-directed support as a way of giving individuals and their families, flexibility, choice and control over the support services they receive. The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 gives people a range of options for how their social care is delivered and places firm duties on local authorities to give people informed choice as to how they will receive their support.

In order to aid the successful implementation of self-directed support the Scottish Government have provided significant investment of £6.3 million over four years from 2011-12 to 2014-15 to third and independent sector providers of social care, helping them to build capacity for self-directed support. This includes providers in rural areas. Further funding of £1.1 million for the financial year 2015-16 has been confirmed and we are currently in the process of assessing funding bids from a number of providers.

In addition to this the Scottish Government currently funds two umbrella bodies to provide on-going support, advice and assistance to both providers and support and information organisations throughout Scotland. Self Directed Support Scotland receive core funding to work closely with support and information organisations and The Coalition of Care and Support Providers Scotland receive core funding to engage with provider organisations. Both umbrella bodies provide an extremely worthwhile service supporting these organisations running regular information sessions and training workshops. They are also key stakeholders of the policy team and are pro-active members of a number of working groups aiming to aid the successful implementation of the self-directed support policy.