A group of social care customers with disabilities and mental health problems, and a carer looking after a disabled person have been trained by Wokingham Borough Council as choice champions to support people who are new to self-directed support.

The choice champions are able to share their experience of personal budgets (money allocated by the council for care and support services) and offer advice to people who are either receiving assistance from adult social care services for the first time, or are switching to the new system of directing their own support arrangements using personal budgets.  Within this new system people can choose, organise and control their social care and support in a way that meets their needs and which best suits them.

The group were trained in mentoring and leadership skills including how to correctly answer any specialist questions about self-directed support, listen to other people, communicate ideas, speak with confidence and organise campaigns. Safeguarding vulnerable adults issues were also covered as part of the training.

The course gave personal budget holders the chance to hone these skills so that they can promote self-directed support and the use of personal budgets to other social care customers. Feedback from the course was extremely positive and those taking part found the whole process very interesting and informative whilst learning a great many new skills. The choice champions now feel well-prepared to share their experiences of self-directed support with others.

The choice champions scheme was introduced last year when 14 people with learning and physical disabilities were trained to provide peer support to other people who want to choose and manage their own support arrangements. The scheme proved to be very successful, and for the last year the choice champions have been very busy supporting people through mentoring as well as delivering training for both customers and local providers of social care services.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Bob Wyatt said: "Personal budgets put the control and choice of care funding firmly in the hands of the customer and can improve the lives of many people.

"The choice champions have responded to the training and are confident that they can share their experiences with other people supported by social care services locally. I had the pleasure of meeting with some of them and was very impressed with their commitment and presentational skills."