Individual Employers who receive Direct Payments/Personal Budgets

Individual Employers is one of the six subgroups that Norfolk Care Association runs as a mechanism to work closely with adult social care providers. Each sub-group represents a key segment of adult social care, allowing us to disseminate targeted information, gather focused insights and intelligence, and explore needs, challenges, and priorities.

An individual employer is someone who directly employs a personal assistant (PA) to provide their care and support. In social care, this is often funded through the local authority, which allocates an amount to an individual based on their eligibility for financial help towards care costs. This allocation is called a personal budget.

A direct payment is the method of receiving that money directly, with payments made to the individual or their representative, to meet some or all of their eligible care and support needs. The aim is to give individuals greater choice and control over how their care and support are arranged.

The Direct Payment Support Service (DPSS) in Norfolk provides advice and practical support for people employing care workers or managing self-employed or agency staff.

A personal health budget uses NHS funding to create an individually agreed care and support plan that meets an individual’s health and wellbeing needs.

Individual employers experience many of the same pressures as other care providers. However, because they are often also the person receiving care — and may not have the organisational systems, policies, or administrative support available to larger care providers — managing compliance, employment responsibilities, and essential information can feel more challenging. Many also tell us that policies and communications they receive are not written with individual employers in mind.

Subgroup Meetings

Next Meeting: 23rd Feb 2026 10:00 am - 11:30 am

13th November 2025 10:00 am - 11:30 am

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Individual Employers | Norfolk Care Association

The Norfolk Picture

In Norfolk, there are approximately 1,610 people in receipt of direct payments from Norfolk County Council, with around 1,350 of these making use of the Direct Payment Support Service (DPSS).

Direct payments in Norfolk account for approximately £23 million of Norfolk County Council’s adult social care expenditure, and individual employers collectively employ over 2,000 personal assistants (PAs).

Source: Norfolk County Council – Direct Payments

In Norfolk and Waveney, for the year ending March 2025, 3,321 adults received personal health budgets, 1,826 of which were paid as direct payments.

Source: NHS Digital – Personal Health Budgets

What Can Norfolk Care Association do?

Norfolk Care Association run quarterly sector sub-group meetings for individual employers alongside working closely with the Making it real group and Direct Payments Support Service.

We also advocate on issues raised by individual employers as well as curate specific information and resources.

Interested in joining this subgroup?

Become a Norfolk Care Association member to be the first to know about upcoming meetings.

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Contact Us

If you want to learn more about what we do, or are interested in becoming a member, our team would love to hear from you.

Suite F2, Independent House, 18-20 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1RY

info@norfolkcareassociation.org.uk

01603 972517