People Places Lives Acquisition of PeoplePlus Independent Living Services

People Places Lives acquires PeoplePlus Independent Living Services, bringing together community-led services and modern technology in UK direct payments

People Places Lives has today completed the acquisition of PeoplePlus Independent Living Services (PeoplePlus ILS), bringing together two organisations with a shared commitment to making direct payments and personal health budgets work better for the people who use them and the public bodies that fund them.

The combined organisation now works with more Local Authorities on direct payments than any other dedicated provider in the UK. 78 colleagues from PeoplePlus ILS join People Places Lives as part of the transaction, alongside 19 additional Local Authority partnerships.

What this means for the sector

The direct payments and personal health budget market has been  historically divided between two types of provider: community-based services with deep roots in disability advocacy and grassroots support, and technology-led platforms designed primarily for payment processing and financial oversight. People Places Lives has spent more than a decade building integrated services that combine both, and this acquisition significantly extends that combined offer.

"This brings together two parts of the same sector that have been working in parallel for too long," said David Bowes, CEO of People Places Lives. "The community-led service tradition has done extraordinary work staying close to the people it serves. The technology-led approach has solved operational problems the sector had given up on. Most providers have chosen one path or the other. We don't believe we should have to choose, and the people we serve shouldn't have to either."

Continuity for existing customers

Customers of both organisations have been informed directly in advance of today's announcement. Day-to-day service relationships continue uninterrupted: the teams who have been supporting Local Authority partners at PeoplePlus ILS continue to do so, and customers of People Places Lives retain their existing points of contact.

Beth Finch, formerly Head of Community Services at PeoplePlus, joins as Head of Partnerships and Social Impact. She will lead the integration of the community-based teams and the development of the combined community offer.

"What attracted me to People Places Lives was the chance to take what we've built at PeoplePlus ILS - community presence, the close relationships that matter most to the people we support - and combine it with technology and investment that lets us reach more people, more effectively," said Finch. "The work itself doesn't change. What changes is what we can do with it."

Why this matters now

The acquisition takes place at a significant moment for personalised care in the UK. Direct payments have been a legal right in adult social care for more than 25 years. Personal health budgets have been NHS policy in England for over a decade, and from April 2026 are being rolled out by Welsh Health Boards. Across all of these settings, the operational and administrative complexity of running direct payments well has been a persistent challenge.

"The case for personalisation is settled," said Bowes. "The question facing every commissioner, finance director and CHC lead in the country is no longer whether direct payments and personal health budgets are the right thing, it's how to make them work well, for more people, with the right support behind them. That's the work we're here to do."

About People Places Lives

People Places Lives is a UK-based provider of direct payment and personal health budget services to Local Authorities and NHS Integrated Care Boards. The combined organisation employs over 120 people across the UK, supporting tens of thousands of people who use direct payments and personal health budgets. Its technology platform, the PPL Portal, which includes Virtual Wallet, provides direct payment management functionality, real-time spend visibility, and digital onboarding for direct payment recipients.

For media enquiries, Local Authority and NHS partners with specific questions, please contact your existing point of contact, or info@peopleplaceslives.co.uk.