Personalised care & Direct Payment support

More control over your care.
More support managing it.

Being given a Direct Payment or a Personal Health Budget means you get to shape the support you receive. It also means paperwork, recruitment, payroll and decisions you have never had to make before. Oakline takes on that side of it, and explains the rest.

Talk to us about personalised support See how the process works
Where this usually starts

Most people find us in the middle of something.

You do not need to know the terminology to get useful help. These are the situations we hear most often.

  • “Mum has been assessed and they have mentioned a Direct Payment. I have no idea what that means for us.”
  • “We have the money now and we are supposed to employ someone. I have never been an employer in my life.”
  • “Our Personal Assistant is brilliant but I am doing payslips at 11pm and getting it wrong.”
  • “Our PA has resigned and I do not know how quickly we can replace her.”
  • “My son is turning 18 and everything about his support is changing.”
  • “The NHS has talked about a Personal Health Budget for my husband. Is that the same thing as a Direct Payment?”

If one of those sounds familiar, a short conversation will usually clear up more than an afternoon of reading. Tell us your situation.

What Oakline actually does

Three kinds of help, depending on where you are.

Some people need someone to explain the system. Some need a Personal Assistant found and checked. Some have all of that in place and simply need the running of it taken off their hands. You can use one part or all three.

Understanding your options

Before anything practical happens, it helps to know what you have been offered and what it allows. We go through it with you without assuming any prior knowledge.

  • What a Direct Payment is and where it comes from
  • How a Personal Health Budget differs when the NHS is funding care
  • What the money can and cannot be used for
  • Employing a Personal Assistant compared with using a care provider
  • What an assessment or review involves and how to prepare
  • Which parts are your decision and which are not
Direct Payment support

Finding the right person

Recruiting a Personal Assistant is not like recruiting for a business. The person is coming into your home and your routine. We run it properly and leave the decision with you.

  • Writing a role description that reflects real daily support
  • Advertising and sifting applications
  • Shortlisting against what matters to you, including personality and language
  • Arranging interviews and trial shifts where appropriate
  • Right-to-work, DBS and reference checks where they apply
  • Replacement recruitment whenever you need it again
Personal Assistant support

Keeping it all running

This is the part that quietly takes over people’s evenings. It is also the part that is easiest to hand over.

  • Payroll, payslips, PAYE, National Insurance and pension duties
  • Employment contracts and written statements of terms
  • Holiday entitlement, sickness and absence records
  • Keeping budget records straight for reviews and audits
  • Arranging the training your PA needs for your support
  • Someone to ask when an employment question comes up
How payroll works
The journey

Seven steps, and you are not alone for any of them.

Oakline helps you navigate and manage the process. Decisions about eligibility and funding are made by your local authority or the relevant NHS body.

Full walkthrough

  1. Tell us about your situation

    A conversation, not an assessment. What support is needed, who it is for, and what has happened so far.

  2. Understand the options available to you

    We explain the routes that exist, including the ones that do not involve Oakline at all.

  3. The relevant authority assesses needs and eligibility

    Your local authority or NHS body carries out the assessment and makes the decision. We help you prepare for it.

  4. Understand the arrangement that has been approved

    Once a decision is made, we go through what has been agreed, what it covers, and what it asks of you.

  5. Choose how your support is arranged

    Employ a Personal Assistant, use a care provider, or combine both within what your plan allows.

  6. Recruit and select your support

    Where you are employing someone, we advertise, sift, check and arrange interviews. You decide who to appoint.

  7. Oakline handles the agreed administration and stays available

    Payroll, employment records, training coordination and ongoing support for as long as you want it.

The words people use

Four terms that cause most of the confusion.

  • Personalised care
    The general idea that support should be built around the person receiving it, including some say over how it is arranged. It is an approach rather than a specific scheme.
  • Direct Payment
    Money paid to you, usually by your local authority, so you can arrange agreed social care support yourself instead of the council arranging it for you. Full explanation
  • Personal Health Budget
    An amount of NHS funding agreed for a person’s healthcare and wellbeing needs, planned with the NHS. It can sometimes be taken as a direct payment. Full explanation
  • Personal Assistant (PA)
    Someone employed directly by you, or by the person you care for, to provide agreed support. Because you are the employer, you choose who it is. Full explanation
Families

You can be as involved as you want to be.

Plenty of the people we work with are not the person receiving care. They are a daughter, a husband, a parent of a young adult. Where the person being supported is happy for you to act on their behalf, we will work with you directly and keep everything in one place.

Whether a family member can be paid to provide support is a separate question, and the answer is not automatic. It depends on the rules of your arrangement and on approval from the body funding your care. We have explained it here.

Being clear about limits

What this service is, and what it is not.

We provide administrative and employment support. Guidance, recruitment, payroll and employment administration around your care arrangement.

We do not decide funding. Eligibility, assessment and the value of any budget are decided by your local authority or the relevant NHS body.

We do not deliver regulated personal care. Oakline is not registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide it. Care is delivered by the people you employ or by a registered provider.

We are not financial or legal advisers. Where a question needs that expertise, we will say so and point you somewhere appropriate.

Questions

Common questions, answered plainly.

There are more in questions and answers.

I have just been told about Direct Payments and I do not understand any of it. Can you help?

Yes, and that is the most common way people arrive here. You do not need to have read anything or prepared anything. Tell us roughly what has happened so far and we will explain where you are in the process and what normally comes next.

If it turns out you need a council or NHS team rather than us, we will tell you that too.

Do I have to employ someone to use a Direct Payment?

No. Employing a Personal Assistant is one option. You can also use a Direct Payment to buy support from a care provider, or use a mix of both, depending on what has been agreed in your support plan.

We have written a guide comparing the two approaches.

Can I choose who supports me?

If you employ a Personal Assistant, yes. You decide who to interview and who to offer the job to. We help you find and check candidates, but the choice is yours.

If your support is provided by an agency, you have less direct control over individual staff, although you can normally raise preferences with the provider.

What happens if my Personal Assistant leaves?

We help you recruit a replacement, and we can usually start before the notice period ends so the gap is as short as possible. We also handle the leaver side of the employment administration — final pay, holiday owed and records.

Cover during a gap depends on what your arrangement allows. We will talk through the realistic options rather than assume.

Is there a charge for Oakline’s support?

The first conversation is free. It exists so we can both work out whether Oakline can actually help, and you are not committed to anything by having it.

Everything after that is chargeable. Before you commit, you get the cost in writing — what we would do, what it covers and what it would cost — so you can compare it, take it away, show it to someone else, or decline it. We do not start chargeable work on the strength of a phone call.

Some support plans include an allowance for administrative help such as payroll. Whether that allowance exists, and whether it can be used to pay a fee like ours, depends on the funding arrangement you actually hold and the conditions your local authority or NHS body attached to it. We will tell you what we think is likely, but the decision is theirs, not ours, and we would rather you checked than assumed.

Do you need my medical information?

Not to have a first conversation. We only ask for information about your health or care needs where we genuinely need it for something specific — for example, describing a role accurately when recruiting a Personal Assistant, and only then with your agreement.

Please do not send diagnoses, care plans or medical records through the website form.

No obligation

Start with a conversation, not a commitment.

Tell us what is happening and we will explain where you stand and what usually comes next. If Oakline is not the right help, we will say so.

Talk to us about personalised support

Where to go next