21129 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Individual Service Funds

Individual Service Funds (ISFs) were formally introduced in the Care Act (2014), as an option for commissioning self-directed support.

They are a mechanism by which an individual’s Personal Budget, agreed by a Social Worker, is held by a third party organisation (i.e. neither by the Local Authority nor the Service User) who is trusted by the client to help them find the care and support they need in the local community, be it access to Day Services, a Personal Assistant (PA), equipment needs, live-in care, social prescribing or signposting to other services and voluntary organisations that will help them achieve their agreed outcomes, or indeed a combination of all of the above.

It is a form of Self-Directed Support. ISFs are particularly appropriate when service users do not feel confident enough or have the capacity to manage the financial and employer responsibilities of a Direct Payment on their own but still prefer to exercise personal choice and control over how their agreed care and support needs are met.