Disabled people have applauded Surrey's efforts to give them more choice and control as part of a national scheme.

Surrey was just one of just seven areas nationally to be picked to test a new Government scheme that allows disabled people to decide how to spend state funding if they want to change the support they currently receive.

Under the national Right to Control pilot launched today disabled people will be able to combine money from different state funding streams as a cash payment to be spent on whatever they think most appropriate for their needs. Alternatively, they can ask a public body to spend that money for them.

The Office for Disability Issues chose Surrey County Council, together with the borough councils in Epsom and Ewell and Reigate and Banstead, as 'trailblazer' local authorities to join up funding for housing, employment and social care in February.

The launch of the scheme on Monday 13th December was welcomed by the Surrey Independent Living Council (SILC), a non-profit-making voluntary sector organisation run by and for disabled people.

Brenda Griffiths, Vice Chair of SILC, said: "I have been campaigning for many years in Surrey for personal mobility initially, then direct payments, fighting for disabled people to have more rights and control over their own lives.

"It is therefore very exciting that Surrey has been chosen as one of the Trailblazer sites to test the Right to Control for disabled people. The Right to Control is really an extension of what direct payments is all about, giving more control to disabled people over how they live their life and so for me it is wonderful to see this happen. It is the culmination of years of work and very exciting to see this in action."

Michael Gosling, Surrey County Council's Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: "This is about giving disabled people more personalised services so they can live their lives their way. We will more than play our part in establishing national services for people with disabilities that really put them at the heart of decisions and give them more control and choice about how they receive support and care."