Should an LA make Direct Payment holders aware that they can use another organisation for support in discharging an employer’s obligations, or is doing this by request only? And should the LA pay any additional fees that such an organisation charges to support the employer?

It’s completely up to the council and its attitude to whether it wants to see DPs grow, or grow but keep control of them. 

Councils are told that they should offer help to manage, but it’s a power only. So if you NEED help, cognitively, or to encourage you, and you haven’t got anyone to nominate, there is no legal principle saying that you can MAKE the council help, just so that you can have a DP and be confident of running it properly. So a council that doesn’t want to see them grow, won’t be forthcoming in this regard with information or money, we suspect.

If councils want to encourage but keep control, they ofte offer to fund this sort of help through a particular organisation that they’ve commissioned or grant funded, so that it is free to the service user – but practice differs as to whether one then has a contract with that agent, or whether it is answerable to the council, because the council is paying or funding. 

It’s a mess, nationally. There is no right of choice, ie no legal obligation to offer a choice in this regard.