What Is Support Brokerage?
Support brokers are your independent guides to make sure you can live the life of your choice if you are a disabled person, older person or family carer.
Support brokerage originated in North America in the late 1970's and has been developed in the UK since 1996 with the introduction of the Direct Payments Act in 1996.
Following the In Control and Care Services Improvement Partnerships national self-directed support pilots in 2005 and 2007, brokerage seen as a crucial component of the move towards the transformation of social care under the Governments' Personalisation policies.
For a useful summary of why brokers can be useful, have a look at these
Ten Broker Statements and let us know what you think!
On this website you will be able to:
- Choose a broker from your local area
- Find out how to become a broker
- Find out who your local NBN Regional Coordinator is
- Find out what is going on in the world of Brokerage
- Discover links to other related organisations and useful websites
- Find out about training
What Is The National Brokerage Network?
- The National Brokerage Network (NBN) is a 'Network’ of Networks' that has been set up to act as an information exchange and an authorative voice for the development of Brokerage throughout the UK.
- It aims to represent the views and interests of the diverse support broker movement with key politicians and policy makers.
- It hopes to build and grow an authoritative body to provide strong leadership, drive and guidance in development of Brokerage.
- The NBN hopes to be able to offer and co-ordinate training by using the specialist skills of
disabled people, family carers and other members of the NBN network.
How is the National Brokerage Network set up?
The NBN was created in 2005 as part of the 'In Control' initiative for self-directed support, but has been independent since 2006. We currently have 12 regional co-ordinators throughout the UK, responsible for setting up regional meetings, peer and individual supervision for Brokers and attending the quarterly National Coordinators meetings.
The NBN is working on registration as a Community Interest Company and this should be completed in Spring 2010.
Membership of the NBN is open and seeks to be fully inclusive.
Our core members include:
Self Advocates
Brokers
Community Brokerage Agencies
Family Members
Community Leaders
Centres for Independent Living
Service providers committed to working with individual funding
Lead Consultancy and Development Agencies
How Can Becoming A Member Benefit You?
- Peer support from your Regional Co-ordinator
- Annual conference and Regional Seminars
- Attendance on local training programmes based on the national training framework
- Copy of NBN approved paper-set to use during your work as a Broker
- National quality standards
Brokerage for the whole community
NBN contributed to the recent Care Services Improvement Partnership paper on individual budgets. We have incorporated the community approach to brokerage in our national training programme and are fully committed to a providing the information, advice and guidance elements of brokerage to disabled people, family members and supporters free of charge.
