Personalisation

The personalisation agenda is leading some of the changes happening in social care today.

It has come about as a direct result of the modernisation of social care services that has been happening over the past several years.

'Putting people first', published in December 2007, contains the government's vision of how personalisation of social care services will allow people more control over their own lives and the services they choose.

• Read 'Putting people first' on the Department of Health website (PDF).

Individual Budgets

The use of individual budgets and resource allocation systems put the people who are in receipt of a service at the centre of the funding for that service, moving away from a model of local authority assessment and placement.

The pioneering work to put users in control of their lives and the support they get was carried out by in Control. This is based on the principles of self-directed support, with individuals given a sum of money to spend in the way they choose to meet their needs.

The Department of Health embraced these principles and set up 13 individual budget pilot sites across England. The evaluation of the pilot was published in July 2008, following a national roll-out.

The report found that the effectiveness of individual budgets differs between groups, such as older people, people with mental health needs and people with physical disabilities. For people with a learning disability, 68% of those surveyed for the evaluation said that individual budgets had changed their view on what could be achieved in life.

Responding to the findings, the Department of Health (DoH) said it was "encouraged that the overall results for social care outcomes were positive." It also said that the research confirmed that the introduction of individual budgets to social care was the right approach, and that the Valuing People Now strategy would prioritise personalisation.

• Read the Individual Budgets Evaluation Network (IBSEN) evaluation report and DoH response.

Key issues

• The White Paper ‘Our health, our care, our say' confirms the vision of high quality support meeting people's aspirations for independence and greater control over their lives, making services flexible and responsive to individual needs. Find out more about ‘Our health, our care, our say' on the Department of Health website.
• A useful guide on receiving direct payments is available from the Department of Health. To read the guide, visit the Department of Health website.

Current debates

As personalisation is playing a key part in the transformation of the social care sector many issues are currently being worked through with the implementation of self-directed support. These will help to shape both the local policies and procedures that local government use, as well as informing the national policy direction.

Research

In supporting the delivery of individualised budgets much of the research that has been completed has been by in Control. There has been an evaluation of in Control which shows the benefits of moving towards self-directed support. Across the country there are now more than 4500 people using the in Control model accessing between them over £42 million pounds.

• Find out more about in Control.

Good practice

There is a wide range of information to support people in developing the tailored support services and meeting the criteria for personalisation. With over 100 local authorities working to deliver individual budgets there are many resources provided by the relevant local authority. This is supported by the library that has been created by the in Control team.

• For more information, visit the library on the in Control website.

Our approach

We are committed to increasing the number of people with a learning disability who design, commission and purchase the services they need using their individual budgets. As a large provider of support services we aim to deliver services that are tailored to the people we support. The personalisation agenda supports our ambition to deliver high quality services to people in a range of settings.

For personalisation to be effective we believe the ethics of choice, respect and transparency, the key values of self-directed support, should be in place in all services. This should be irrespective of whether these are services that are registered, supported living, independent living or self-directed support.

One aspect of the move to a self-directed support model can be seen with the way the funding for, and delivery of our services is being commissioned. As a service provider our personal support and housing staff are working in partnership with several local authorities and in Control to transform the commissioning of the services that people receive.