Direct Payments to Families within the last five years. - Find a freedom of information request

1. Does your council have a policy setting out the circumstance where a Direct Payment paid by the council to a family to meet the needs of a disabled child may be requested to be repaid to the council?

If the answer to question 1 is yes, please provide a copy of that policy or explain why providing a copy of the policy is nor possible.

If the answer to question 1 is no, or if you are unable to provide a copy of the policy, please could you say in which circumstances your council would feel it appropriate to request repayment of direct payments made to meet the needs of a disabled child.

2. How many times in each of the last 5 years has your council requested direct payments to meet the need of a disabled child to be repaid to the council? e., this occurred 'x' times in 2019, 'y' times in 2020, 'z' times in 2021, etc.

For your reply to question 2, please can you specify if your figures relate to a calendar, financial, school, or other type of year.

If question 2 is not able to be answered due to the resources needed to obtain the information, please could you confirm whether ANY direct payments to meet the needs of a disabled child were requested to be repaid to the council in each of the last 5 years.

If questions above are not able to be answered due to the resources needed to obtain the information, please could the council explain the reasons why that information is not easily accessible and monitored by the management of the team responsible for disabled children's services or the management of the team responsible for direct payments.

In this request, when I say 'a direct payment to meet the needs of a disabled child' I mean any services provided under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989 or CSDPA 1970 which may include personal care, short breaks, and other services.

1. Lincolnshire County Council audit all individual Direct Payment accounts based on proportionality and risk and recover accordingly

In cases where a recovery is appropriate in audits undertaken on Children with Disabilities, the usual reasons are related to surplus funds, overpayments, and to a lesser extent, misspending of the budget.

2. Lincolnshire County Council cannot provide detailed information on individual audits owing to the time taken to gather all the available information