Support Broker

When Luke and Gary started Instream Partnership in 2003 our aim was to support people with their Direct Payments and other funding.

We realised, from our own experience, that Direct Payments was a great move forward for people with disabilites to become more independent and take more control over their support. However the management around employing Personal Assistants, dealing with employment issues and managing their funding can be daunting to some people, so we decided to offer our support.

Since 1996 Gary, (who has Muscular Dystrophy) has managed his own funding and Personal Assistants. He became the first person in Rochdale to receive a Direct Payment and was instrumental in setting up their Direct Payment scheme. His 1st Personal Assistant, Luke Travis, started working with him in 1996 and over the years they have assisted many people to access funding and employ personal assistants.

We offer assistance in all matters arising from employing personal assistants and managment of funding, whether the funding is from Individualised Budgets, Direct Payments, PHB (Personal Heallth Budgets), and Access to work. We can customise our support to the individual needs and can support people on high level of support of low level support.

Some of the services we offer:

Telephone advice line 9am to 9pm – 7 days a week

Assisting with recruiment of Personal Assistants and all matters relating to their employment including Contracts, staff handbooks, staff training, rotas, supervision, and payroll.

Bank Management of funding, including budgets and costings.