Support broker contact details

Support brokerage functions
Principles of support brokerage
Support broker profiles

People eligible for publicly funded social care are given an upfront allocation of funding (a personal budget) and choice and control over how they plan and organise their support to meet agreed outcomes. Support brokerage will be vital to the success of self directed support.

Support brokerage is about making sure that people and their families who want extra assistance to plan and make choices about support can get it. All local authorities have the task of encouraging the development of support brokerage capacity in the community.

Oxfordshire County Council has appointed two organisations who provide brokerage services in addition to four support brokers employed by the Council. The organisations we have selected have specialists in certain areas such as older people, strokes or mental health. This way you can find someone who understands the situation of the individual requiring care and knows the way to practical solutions and quality services which will work well.

The organisations are:

If the needs of the individual are complex, they may be referred to an internal support broker, employed by Oxfordshire County Council.

Support brokerage functions

enabling the person to consider how s/he wants to live and what support is needed (person centred planning and support planning)
ensuring the person is able to speak out and where needed be represented
finding out what is available
exploring possibilities, especially community resources
providing information (signposting)
giving technical advice
encouraging informal supports
coordinating supports and resources
ensuring the person has support to manage their budget
facilitation to enable things to happen

The role of the support broker is to:

work directly with adults and their carers who have personal budgets, in close collaboration with adults’ services
assist these adults and their carers to develop appropriate individual support plans, visiting them at home as required
liaise closely with the relevant specialist S&CS Team
participate in countywide meetings, facilitated by S&CS, to discuss their role in support brokerage; share learning from the project; exchange recording and monitoring information and processes
agree with S&CS how external brokers will be selected, trained, accredited and monitored
produce monitoring information and reports as requested by and agreed with S&CS

Principles of support brokerage

Support brokerage in Oxfordshire is based on a number of principles which are closely linked to the principles of self directed support.

The provision of information about the range of brokerage options is a central part of enabling choice and control.
With assistance if needed, the person for whom the brokerage is provided makes the decision about how resources are used.
Information should be provided in the format best suited to the individual.
Support brokerage has a clear value base to promote self-determination.

Support broker profiles

Oxfordshire Care and Support Options

A partnership of Age UK Oxfordshire, Headway Oxford, Connection Oxford Floating Support Team, Oxford Association for the Blind and Oxford Carers Centre, working across

Debbi Challen(.pdf , 30Kb)

Heather Chapman(.pdf , 29Kb)

Lonah Hebditch(.pdf, 32Kb)

Corinne Merrick(.pdf, 30Kb)

Ursula Nicholls(.pdf , 29Kb)

Sarah Parsons(.pdf , 29Kb)

Sue Smith(.pdf, 29Kb)

Pauline Sprague(.pdf , 29Kb)

Advance Broker Direct

Catherine Adams(.pdf , 30Kb)

Joy Atkins(.pdf , 32Kb)

Melanie Dore(.pdf , 30Kb)