About Individual Service Funds

An Individual Service Fund is a way to pay for and organise your care.

This is how it works:

  1. If you feel that you need support to do everyday tasks such as washing, dressing, cooking and going out, contact your local council’s Adult Social Services department and ask for an assessment.

  2. Someone from the council will visit to talk about the care you might need. This is called a Care Assessment. You might be able to get an advocate to help you with this meeting – Care Act Advocacy | POhWER – Advocacy provider, Hertfordshire

  3. If the council decides you need care,  they will work out how much it should cost. This amount of money is called your personal budget. You may also get money from the NHS to pay for healthcare needs, and this is also part of your personal budget.

  4. The council will find out how much money you can contribute towards your care. This is called a Financial Assessment.

  5. Your Personal Budget can be used in 1 of 3 ways:

    Commissioned Service: The council can organise your care.

    Direct Payment: You can get the money sent to you, and you organise your care.

    Individual Service Fund (ISF): Troika, or another care provider, looks after the money and we work together as a team to organise your care. We make sure all the rules are followed, and we take care of admin, management and reporting.

Meeting over a laptop

What is it like to have an ISF?

You may have already tried Direct Payments. It can be a lot of work, to track the money, employ your own staff, and report back to the council. With an ISF managed by Troika, all of this is taken care of.

Once you have your personal budget, call us, and a service coordinator from Troika will visit you at home, or online.

We will work together to create a support plan. This is about the things you want to do, and the support you will need to do those things. We will talk about your week, and your longer term plans.

We will find organisations and people who can give you the support you need. Troika will manage the money, and give you clear information about how all the money is being spent. We will make sure it is always being spent on the right things, and we will give your council information about how everything is going.

The best thing about an ISF is flexibility. So, if you decide you want to change something about your support, we can usually organise this quickly and easily, without having to ask your council first.