Welfare Reform on the Web (July 2011): Social care - UK - community care
The challenge of managing change: what can we do differently to ensure personalisation?
M. Cornes
Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 19, Apr. 2011, p.22-29
This article questions whether traditional management approaches based on leadership, training and piloting of new schemes and teams will be sufficient to achieve service personalisation and deliver tangible change. It is suggested that a new approach to policy implementation is required which firmly locates 'service improvement' in the mainstream of service delivery, recognizing that it is an inherently collaborative activity. It is concluded that only by taking ownership of the issues that arise in the front line of service delivery will personalisation be achieved, and that will require a degree of organisational change to integrate learning and caring into everyday practice.
Keeping personal budgets personal: learning from the experiences of older people, people with mental health problems and their carers
L. Newbronner and others
Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2011 (Adult services report; 40)
This report looks at the experiences of older people and people with mental health problems with personal budgets across five study sites. It gives an overview of how well personal budgets are working based on input from 69 personal budget holders and carers, 40 practitioners and managers, and 12 support provider organisations. The research produced two main conclusions:
- people with mental health problems who use personal budgets need consistent contact with a worker who knows their circumstances
- mental health service providers need to offer better information on personal budget options available.
URL: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/reports/report40/files/report40.pdf
Personalisation
Community Care, May 26th 2011, p.4-5; 22-27
A Community Care survey of social care professionals in 2011 has shown a dramatic fall in support for personalisation compared to a previous survey in 2009. This loss of enthusiasm is ascribed to the impact of budget cuts, increased bureaucracy and a perceived negative impact on jobs as councils delegate work to cheap, unqualified staff instead of using professional social workers.