Personalisation of Social Care

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Personalisation of Social Care & The Future of Care Management Reflections from a Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) Seminar 19th July 2007 1 Introduction 1. The adult social care policy agenda is focused on the development of personalisation of support. This has been repeatedly stated in key policy documents including Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People[1] (published by the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in 2005), and the 2006 Community Services White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say,[2] which announced the piloting of Individual Budgets. Personalisation had its early beginnings in Direct Payments (introduced in 1997), whereby people who are eligible for social care can choose to receive a cash sum in lieu of services. Despite repeated efforts to encourage take-up, and extension of the legislation to include further groups of people within eligibility, direct payment expenditure still accounts for only 1% of local authority spending on social care. Individual Budgets are being piloted in 13 English localities and are subject to independent evaluation, with the findings expected towards the end of 2008. Individual Budgets (IBs) bring together a range of different funding streams – in addition to social care expenditure - to support independent living. The model for IBs was largely derived from work developed by In Control which pioneered self-directed support for people with learning disabilities and is engaged in supporting personalisation developments in more than 90 local authorities. 2. It is against this background that critical debate is needed about the place of care management. The NHS and Community Care Act of 1990 saw the implementation of the 1989 White Paper Caring for People.[3] That document identified “proper assessment of need and good case management” as the cornerstone of high quality care, with

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