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How self directed support is failing to deliver personal budgets and personalisation
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter, SCHOFIELD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 29(3), 2012, pp.161-177.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
In this article, the authors suggest that the drive to create personalised services through self-directed support and personal budgets was implemented before the model was fully tested. Its implementation was announced before completion of a national evaluation set up by the Government. One advantage of such speedy, widespread implementation is that we are now beginning to have substantial evidence regarding its efficacy. At the same time, the UK is the on the cusp of new legislation likely to shape social care for the foreseeable future. It is essential that legislation takes on board what the evidence says about this model. The authors suggest that the concepts of personalisation and personal budgets associated with it may retain value if interpreted in an appropriate way, delivered through an appropriate strategy. Then even so long as resources fall short of needs, they are likely to ensure the best possible outcomes for service users are secured. (Publisher abstract)
Historical amnesia: linking past, present and future in politics and policy
- Author:
- CLARKE John
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 29(3), 2012, pp.153-160.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
In this article, the author explores the problem of historical amnesia in politics and policy. He suggests that forgetfulness about past experience, past policies and past knowledge is a dangerous condition. Drawing on several recent examples, it explores the implications of this form of amnesia and its relationship to another disorder of the politics of policy making: the “fetishisation” of certain objects such as community. Taking up the issue of the contemporary politics and policy of austerity, the author points to the importance of learning lessons from the past and not surrendering policy making to the proclaimed urgency of the present and future. It concludes that such forms of ‘telling the time’ are critical political devices.
Citizenship, choice and care: an examination of the promotion of choice in the provision of adult social care
- Author:
- DALY Guy
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 29(3), 2012, pp.179-189.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
Choice for service users in social care in the UK has been promoted by all governments over the last thirty years. However, there has been insufficient reflection on how this impacts on service users and citizens as a whole. In this article, the author suggests that when choice in social care is examined from economic, psychological and socio-political perspectives, doubts arise as to the extent it has empowered service users, promoted the rights of citizens and improved service delivery. Social care needs to be constructed less as a market or civil right and more as a social right since markets can be ineffective in coordinating the production, distribution and governance of social care. In addition, the promotion of choice in social care can have deleterious socio-political, psychological and economic consequences. The author argues that rather than concentrating on choice, a more appropriate way forward in the provision of social care and in the meeting of citizens’ rights to care would be to conceptualise choice as a ‘second order’ concern at most and, instead, to concentrate on establishing adequately funded, high quality universal social care services across the UK.
The future of social care in the UK
- Authors:
- GODDEN Sylvia, POLLOCK Allyson
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 28(1), 2010, pp.3-16.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
Labour’s white paper ‘Building the National Care Service’ published shortly before the 2010 general election announced plans for major reform of the funding and future of social care in England. In so doing it reopened longstanding debates about the principles on which care should be based. The new government coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats raises questions as to the future direction of social care. This paper charts developments since the inception of the welfare state to the present time. It shows how, regardless of political party, each successive administration has played its role in the move away from care delivered on a universal collective responsibility to increasing individual responsibility where the risks and costs of care are held at the individual level. The current promotion of personal budgets and direct payments is described along with the risks for providers and users. Finally, the future of social care is considered in light of the plans of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. The article concludes that social care will continue to be a personal and not a collective responsibility, paid for by private contributions and where private insurers play a role. All governments relegate social care to a low priority status and this is likely to continue.
‘Welfare worries’: mapping the directions of welfare futures in the contemporary UK
- Authors:
- MOONEY Gerry, NEAL Sarah
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 27(3), 2009, pp.141-150.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
This article provides a view on the future of welfare in the UK. It uses the examples of dirty hospitals, the baby Peter scandal, and the case of Karen Matthews, to highlight the generalised sense that welfare is failing, and that the state is now failing to protect us from a seemingly growing and expanding range of social harms and risks in an increasingly precarious and uncertain time. The article discusses the growing social and economic polarisation in contemporary Britain and the ways in which this corresponds with and contributes to rising levels of fear, distrust and anxiety. It also explores the notion of ‘broken Britain’ and ‘broken society’ used to describe the social and moral state of the contemporary UK. It argues that the directions of welfare provision in the future are likely to remain focused on social welfare defined by and delivered through a stable of regulative concepts such as individualism, responsibility and social order. It also suggests that the convergent relationship between social welfare and crime control worlds, which has resulted in hybrid welfare-crime policy-making and enabling-penalising welfare discourses, is here to stay. It concludes that we are not witnessing the terminal decline of welfare, but rather, complex and uncertain processes of shift and reformation, in which an emphasis is being given to civic interaction, neighbourliness and community.
Ambition, confidence and risk: holding nerve in difficult times
- Author:
- COZENS Andrew
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 27(2), 2009, pp.107-112.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
These are challenging times for children’s services and adult social care in England. The political climate is changing and the recession has brought into sharp focus questions about the evidence of impact from unprecedented investment, particularly in children’s services. There is a tide of public concern about how children are kept safe and about how long-term care is currently funded. This paper explores how the ambition for, and confidence in, these services can be sustained during political and economic turbulence.
Social care, personalisation and service users: addressing the ambiguities
- Author:
- BERESFORD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 27(2), 2009, pp.73-84.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
While personalisation and ‘self-directed support’ have been advanced as progressive ways to reform social care, strong suspicions and concerns about it continue to exist among the stake holders most crucially involved: service users, practitioners and carers. In the light of the recent publication of a government Green Paper on the future funding of adult social care, this article explores the relationship between funding proposals and the progressive and regressive potential of social care reform. It explores two key questions. Will social care be equipped to throw off its Poor Law inheritance to provide a needs and rights based service, and are proposals likely to provide the basis for reducing the current gap between the aspirations and claims of policymakers and the lived experience of the large and growing numbers of people requiring support from social care and related policy and services?
Assistive technology, telecare, and dementia: some implications of current policies and guidance
- Authors:
- WOOLHAN John, GIBSON Grant, CLARKE Pam
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 24(3), 2006, pp.149-164.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
Electronic assistive and telecare technologies in England and Wales have moved on less than a decade from being a fringe interest of a few enthusiasts - principally from within dementia care community - to mainstream provision in some areas. This paper traces the emergence and development of this technology and government policy, and offers some thoughts on the impact these changes may have on its use in dementia care settings.
The future of adult social care: lessons from previous reforms
- Author:
- GLASBY Jon
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 23(2), 2005, pp.61-70.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
In 2005, the adult social care Green Paper, 'Independence, Well-being and Choice', set out a 'new vision' for the future of social care in England. Throughout the document there was a strong emphasis on greater choice and control for service users, a more strategic, preventative approach, working with other service and promoting independence, well-being and inclusion. As the formal consultation process closes (in July 2005), this paper reviews three previous reforms (The Seebohm Report, The Barclay Report, and The community care reforms) - all of which set out very similar ideas and demonstrate considerable continuity in thinking over time. Given that the Green Paper feels that a 'new vision' is need for adult social care, this paper questions the extent to which any of these proposals are indeed 'new' and questions how these changes are expected to work when previous reforms are perceived not to have delivered desired outcome.
Research Policy and Planning
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
This publication contains work by researchers and practitioners in local and central government in the UK, statutory and voluntary organisations and academic institutions. Features include policy analyses, planning reports, surveys and reviews. Volume 33(3) 2020 was the last issue of this journal.