The pioneering Empower Card helped Cheshire East Council beat off stiff competition for The MJ’s Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year award in June 2011. Nicola Carroll talks to the winnng team

It is fitting that Cheshire East Council’s victory in the The MJ Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year Award coincided perfectly with the issue of the council’s 1,000th Empower Card.

The Empower Card, which enabled the council to beat off stiff competition for the award, is a pre-loaded debit card for people who receive a personal budget for social care. It has delivered financial savings for the authority while improving quality of life for its citizens.

The card was launched in 2010 to make it easier for people to manage funds for their care. It is credited with an agreed amount, and can be used anywhere VISA is accepted, including online transactions.

It is backed by 24-hour telephone banking, meaning greater flexibility for the user.

Believed to be the first of its type in the UK, the Empower Card has enabled the council to cut through layers of bureaucracy.

Phil Lloyd, director of adults, community, health and wellbeing at Cheshire East Council, explains: ‘The card was introduced in the context of redesigning the whole adult care system from A-Z. And the Empower Card is at the front end of all that.

‘It is something people can relate to. It treats the individual as the expert in their own situation, and reduces the administrative burden on individuals, families and carers.’

When Cheshire East Council was established in April 2009, the new unitary authority recognised the need to improve and streamline its adult social care services. ‘We wouldn’t have come as far as fast if we hadn’t gone through local government reorganisation. A priority is putting the citizen at the heart of the process,’ says Mr Lloyd.

There were resounding cheers in the council chamber when the mayor held up The MJ trophy. Mr Lloyd says: ‘The award has arrived at a time when we feel we have reached a good point in our redesign of social care, and it coincided beautifully with the issue of our 1,000th. It is excellent recognition for the staff,’ he says.

Cllr Roland Domleo, cabinet member responsible for adult services, comments: ‘At Cheshire East Council, we have made choice and control our number one corporate objective.

‘So, to have been recognised for doing this in adult services is very rewarding… It is heartening that care-users and their families are finding they can live much more independently.’

Like all other councils, Cheshire East is under pressure to cut costs. Use of the card has generated efficiency savings of 49% so far, compared with the previous account management process for personal budgets, which equates to more than £236,000.

The card replaces a bureaucratic process of sending out invoices and sorting out bills.

Rather than people having to provide audits of what they spend, the council receives that information automatically as a statement. The complexity of having to claw back overpayments has also been eliminated.

The council estimates savings will be £700,000 by 2012, and total £2.1m over three years. This saving is particularly important in a council where the proportion of people aged over 85 will have grown by 45% by 2021.

The card can be used for transport, care, leisure, respite breaks and equipment. It was developed in consultation with a citizens’ panel and feedback has been very positive.

For example, Mrs M, an 80-year-old Asian woman was no longer able to cook for herself and did not speak English. So, she now uses the Empower Card to have food delivered from a local Indian restaurant, which has improved her health and wellbeing.

Mr W is able to make his personal budget go further as he can now access special offers on transport, leisure activities and respite breaks instead of using more traditional and expensive services he felt did not fully meet his needs.

And when council staff were concerned that older people would not get hot meals during adverse winter weather, the landlord of a local pub started cooking lunches for them, which could be paid for using their Empower Card. The simplicity of the card has prompted increased take-up of personal budgets. Local care-providers have praised the new system, which enables them to receive their payments efficiently.

The council held a series of events to alert providers of the need to market services to individuals, which brought them together with service-users and their carers, social workers and families.

Risks associated with the new system have been carefully assessed.

Policing use of the card is not a problem, according to Mr Lloyd because, ‘at the heart of personalisation is a very different relationship between the council and the citizen. So long as they are spending the money in a way that is recognised as part of the package of care, they can spend it as they like. It’s about outcomes.’

He adds: ‘The system allows immediate monitoring. There are fewer risks of vulnerable people being financially abused with this system, and there is the added benefit that if a card hasn’t been used, this alerts the council that something might be wrong.’

When Mr Lloyd spoke at an Association of Directors of Adult Social Services event recently, there was a huge amount of interest in the idea of the Empower Card from authorities which are eager to follow Cheshire East’s lead. The MJ award was displayed at the event and marks an end of an era for Mr Lloyd, who is retiring after 30 years in local government.

The MJ Awards

The facts:

Category: Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year

Sponsor: impower

Winner: Cheshire East Council

Judges: Jeremy Cooper, director, impower; Mark Rogers, chief executive, Solihull MBC; and Martin Routledge, head of operations, In Control