Progress on Personalisation: Putting People First – Community Care London Conference
March 20, 2009
On the 18th March 2009 Community Care hosted a conference to evaluate and assess the introduction of personalisation one year on. The Conference heard much about the steady progress made to date by county councils and local authorities in implementing probably the most radical agenda in Adult Social Care. Personalisation itself is about the availability of personal budgets for assessed services for people to decide how and when they use their support budgets to assist in the daily living. A simple example given by the Minister of State for Care Services, related to a man who requested money for a fridge rather than care, when asked why, he explained the purchase of the fridge would allow his daughter to cook meals for the week for him to keep thereby freeing up quality time for him to spend with his daughter rather than having to have a fresh meal prepared every night. In turn this enabled the daughter to stop being a ‘carer’ 7 days a week.
Personalisation will revolutionise the way delivery of social care occurs over the next few years against a background of the aging society, a probably squeeze on public sector spending due to the credit crunch, and a tightened of means assisted services by the state. Within this framework a new language is emerging best summed up by the new words Co-Production and used by the Minister himself.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced a research brief this March entitled ‘Co-production: an emerging evidence base for adult social care transformation. SCIE state, “The term ‘co-production is increasingly being applied to a new type of public service delivery in the UK, including new approaches to adult social care. It refers to active input by the people who use service, as well as – or instead of – those who have traditionally provided them.
In other words the professional client relationship is gone. No more use of Service users or professionals knowing best – instead we have the arrival of an equal relationship where the recipient is no longer passive but assertive about what they need. The new User alongside the provider is empowered to share power in assessment and distribution of resources they need for use as they decide. This term symbolises a massive shift towards really putting some substance behind the easily quoted words often used by professionals of choice, well-being, and independence. If this language is correct this will be the biggest and most welcome shift since the creation of the welfare state of real power and control passing to the User and away from the State knowing best. Good news indeed.
Comments
Got something to say?