Devon’s Disabled Children’s Service is launching the Devon Wallet. The Devon Wallet is a new virtual wallet platform that will support the delivery of direct payments and personal budgets, starting with Short Break plans.
Families have said they would like more visibility of the support available to them, and an easy-to-use online system with everything they need in one place. They’ve also said that choice and control remain important.
The Devon Wallet will provide this and is part of move from the current system of prepaid cards to a virtual wallet platform.
We are currently approaching the enablers, services, and activities that our families use to populate the Devon Wallet e-marketplace. Once we are confident the support families access is available through the Devon Wallet e-marketplace, we will be contacting families who use direct payments and personal budgets from Disabled Children’s Service. We will be starting with the families who have already had preliminary conversations with us and agreed to be part of a pilot.
If your young person is 17 years old we will continue to use the current arrangement as we appreciate that a change at this time would not be helpful to you.
Families do not need to do anything at this stage: the service will contact users in the new year.
We will be publishing more information on the Devon Local Offer website. And we will be running virtual drop-in sessions in the new year for families to learn more and ask us questions.
In the meantime, if you are already receiving social care direct payments and have any queries about the Devon Wallet, please contact our dedicated email childsc.virtualwalletenquiries-mailbox@devon.gov.uk.