DEVON County Council spent nearly £40million on direct payments to social care clients last year, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has shown.

A total of £39,137,538 was spent on direct payments in 2023/24, the FOI shows.

Of the total figure, £4,370,538 went toward children’s social care and £34,767,000 toward adult social care.

If a local authority decides that a person is entitled to community care services, the person can, more often than not, choose to receive payments instead of the services.

These are what is known as direct payments; people can use the money to arrange their own care services.

Generally, those eligible for direct payments can choose to have: direct payments, services that are provided or arranged by the local authority or a mixture of direct payments and services the local authority has provided or arranged.