Over the past few months I’ve been working with Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Personal Choice Programme’, helping them to communicate their work more effectively.

One of the workstreams we have been working on looks at Direct Payments, a system through which eligible individuals (or their carers) can claim money from their local authority to pay for their care and support needs. This is instead of the council simply organising care and support on their behalf, and moves the choice and control from the local authority to the person in question. Doing this can give people a much wider range of support providers and activities to choose from, and, as a result, transform their daily lives.

So far so good, but it took me a while to really get my head around Direct Payments and what they can do. Here’s why – the communications around them need a rethink.

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