Michelle overcomes her fear of individualised funding

For years the thought of individualised funding scared Michelle Smith. In August last year, she finally decided to take the plunge. She shares her journey with In Touch Magazine. 



When I was first approached by my needs assessor Kelly about individualised funding nearly four years ago, I immediately said no. The thought of it scared me. I had spoken to people about it in the past, but the idea of employing staff, dealing with employment contracts, and sorting out payroll was overwhelming even though everyone said it was the best thing. I think my biggest fear was not being able to find back-up support workers and being left in the same position as I often found myself in with the healthcare agency.  

While I do have my husband on hand, he should not have to be the one showering and dressing me every day before he goes to work. A secondary fear was dealing with payroll – as I always say, I am an historian not an accountant, even though I live with one! So, at each subsequent assessment, my needs assessor brought up the scary topic. And each time I always said no. Even though she said it would be the best thing for me, I dug my toes in.  

However, each year the services from the healthcare agency I was using got worse. While my everyday support workers were brilliant, the organisation’s lack of communication, inability to cover shifts (despite often being given weeks of notice), lack of understanding and empathy, and sending inexperienced staff to deal with my needs when my usual girls were away on leave or sick, just got too much. 

I am in a far better position now than before, and the stress of whether or not someone is going to turn up or who will do my cleaning if my support worker is sick or on holiday, has gone. 

I got more and more frustrated at the healthcare agency and letters of complaint did little to invoke any change in a very broken system. So, at my needs assessment last August, I finally bit the bullet and asked Kelly to tell me more about individualised funding as I was seriously considering making the move across and taking charge of my support needs. We went through all the details and at the end of the discussion I said I would give it a go. I think Kelly nearly jumped with joy at my change of heart.  

Within a couple of weeks approval had been given by the MoH and the funding was put in the care of Manawanui. I had also spoken with a couple of my permanent support workers and asked if they would consider taking me on as a private client. One said yes and one said no. I then approached another support worker whom I liked. She said yes and that, where possible, she would be a back-up. My husband would be my third support worker who would fill in when no-one else could. It was a relief to have that sorted.  

Next came the employment agreements and job descriptions for each of my support workers. Manawanui had templates that could be altered to suit my situation (actually they have everything on their website including tutorials), which I used. Only one of my girls is a permanent employee as she does the most hours, the other support workers are on a casual agreement. This worked the best for my situation, and theirs, but everyone will have different requirements and be able to offer different agreements and rates of pay for their staff. The great thing was I could pay my support workers a better hourly rate than they were getting through the agency, and I could actually pay my cleaner (employed as a support worker) out of my funding too – after all she is providing a service due to my disability. Amazing how much funding you have when not paying an agency’s admin fee! I am also able to pay my husband for a few hours per fortnight (although he probably deserves a lot more), and for those days he has to cover someone else.  

I am in a far better position now than before, and the stress of whether or not someone is going to turn up or who will do my cleaning if my support worker is sick or on holiday, has gone. I could still do with another back up and will look at the Manawanui employment section on their website to see if I can find someone that way. For now there is no rush. The people I have in my life are working fairly seamlessly – I am sparkly clean and presentable each day, my house is clean each week, the dog gets brushed, the bed is made, and my busy life carries on nicely.  

The customer experience staff at Manawanui are friendly and helpful and no question is too big or small. I think I emailed them about 20 times in the first week, and there was never any hint that I was a nuisance. Initially I was going to do the payroll by myself, using the tools available through Manawanui, but after a couple of weeks I found this difficult and time consuming, and so went back to Kelly and asked her to switch me to the Manawanui payroll service. Manawanui’s payroll service costs $15 per fortnight and the payment is taken out of your funding. It is a small amount to pay for them to deal with the fortnightly pay, holidays, sick leave, time-and-a-half and alternate days. They sort out the tax and the ACC levy as well. All I have to do is fill in the fortnightly timesheet, verify it and submit it online. Easy as that.  

I am tracking along nicely with my funding and have even been able to use some of the money to purchase other disability support items such as handrails for the bathrooms in my new house, and a watch that pairs with my mobile phone so that if I ever fall when transferring I can still make a call by just talking to my watch. A quick email to the customer service team to see if these fell under the criteria of approved items was all that was required. I rang Kelly about a month after starting with Manawanui and told her she was right – she took great delight in asking me to repeat myself and even put it in writing. I wish I had taken control of my funding and services sooner, and would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it. Yes, you need to do a little work upfront, but it is so very worth it.