Update on funding for this site
The world is ever changing and one of the changes happening is increased access for disabled people to Direct Payments and Individual Budgets - and for people to be able to use these to make choices about what they want to do. Direct Payments and Individual Budgets are money paid to disabled people by their local authorities in the UK to pay for a wide range of things from personal care to accessing community facilities. Everything we read talks about imaginative and innovate ideas for their take up and, we think, what more imaginative than this site? It is something we know that disabled people want from the work we have done so far and the continued enquiries , it is something people can do at their own pace and at any time of the day or night. We hope, therefore, to be able to access funds to put time and research into this idea, finding out how many disabled people want to use this site and need the funds to help them do that and the means for disabled people not entitled to Direct Payments or Individual Budgets (or not wishing to use them) to be able to use the website. We will also look at the processes local authorities have for people to use Direct Payments and Individual Budgets in this way. This is all on the basis that in the future we will either charge individuals to use the site on a one year subscription basis (which they can pay for via Direct Payments, Individual Budgets, etc), or that Local Authorities might buy block subscriptions for disabled people in their area.
We will keep you posted on this and welcome any thoughts you have.