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Further lessons from the continuing failure of the national strategy to deliver personal budgets and personalisation
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter, SCHOFIELD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 31(1), 2014, pp.43-53.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
The Government continues to act on the basis that the model of ‘self-directed support’ as devised by In Control is working and should be the basis of current and future social care and health strategy. They are sustained in this belief by national surveys of ‘personal budget’ holders which claim that personal budgets are improving outcomes for people. However, examination of the survey results shows this to be a potentially misleading assertion. It actually suggests that the opposite is more likely to be the case. Whilst political and sector leaders continue to declare their commitment to the model, the legislation has not actually supported it given the way the Care Act has been formulated. This offers the possibility of an alternative future for social work and social care services. However, it will require a refreshed understanding of the widely acknowledged shortcomings of the system that the In Control model had itself been created to overcome, but which has failed to do. (Publisher abstract)
The false narrative about personal budgets in England: smoke and mirrors?
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 31(8), 2016, pp.1132-1137.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Successive governments have supported ‘personal budgets’ as the route to transforming social care. However, this article outlines how the evidence has been constructed in a way that creates a narrative about personal budgets which is misleading. It is a narrative that continues to dominate the national strategy. The consequence is that the care system remains set in a dysfunctional, two-tier state. For the bottom tier, comprising over 90%, we argue there has not been, nor will there be under the current strategy, any transformation. (Edited publisher abstract)
Why have personal budgets failed
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter, SCHOFIELD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Matters (e-Magazine), February 2013, pp.22-25. Online only
- Publisher:
- The College of Social Work
The authors argue that the system of personal budgets is not working as it should, and that, unlike direct payments, it is not improving outcomes. They discuss the evidence for this and suggest another way forward. The authors argue that many people still want to be able to work in partnership with the state, and need support if they are to create a support plan to help them achieve maximum independence and wellbeing. (Original abstract)
Can personalisation be a reality for older people?
- Author:
- SLASBERG Colin
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 14(3), September 2010, pp.15-22.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The agenda to transform social care from its prevailing rigid and service-centred culture to one that is personalised is key in the government’s strategy to transform care and support services. The core driver used by the government to achieve personalisation is to give people ‘choice and control’ through the provision of personal budgets. This is the allocation of sums of money up-front to allow people to choose and commission their own support systems. The new coalition government has signalled its wish to not only endorse this approach, but to accelerate its implementation. However, there is growing evidence that while this will work very well for people and those around them with the will, the skills and the time to make a success of it, for most it will not result in real change. This is especially the case for older people. This article explores this issue, but carries the message that personalisation can and should be made a reality for all service users and all older people. However, it will require a commitment to a transformational change programme within councils that goes beyond simply achieving well against the former government's performance indicator of numbers with personal budgets.
- article
Ending eligibility: ten tests for establishing a human rights-based approach to adult social care
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter
- Publisher:
- Community Care
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Place of publication:
- London
Scotland's independent review into adult care recently called for social workers to be focused on realising rights rather than determining eligibility. This article explores how to make this real, setting out ten tests by which to judge the authenticity of the Scottish Government’s intentions. The tests suggest the practical steps required if it is to deliver the independent review’s recommendations. They also provide a blueprint for what it would take to implement this system elsewhere in the UK, given the UK government’s plans to unveil plans to reform adult social care in England later this year. The ten tests for a rights-based approach are: establish the principle that in social care, as in the NHS, need will precede resources; declare the end of the eligibility system; commit to funding all needs for people to have a dignified quality of life to the best of its ability; require that systems are established that aggregate and report unmet need; acknowledge that regional equity depends on the level of resources available to local authorities and is a national responsibility; require councils to establish systems that control spending without compromising assessments; require councils to democratise their assessment process; develop a workforce development strategy; develop a transition strategy for people currently receiving support; define what a ‘National Care Service’ is. (Edited publisher abstract)
Toward a new start and a sustainable future for adult social care
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 33(3), 2020, pp.169-184.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
The social care system in England is widely seen to be suffering from a sustained period of underfunding as a result of a decade of austerity. Less well observed is that it is also suffering from a chronic lack of direction. The evidence leaves little room for debate that the high transformative ambitions of the personalisation strategy have failed. The ambitions remain ones that have universal support – a service that responds to each individual, enables wellbeing and good quality of life and makes best use of public resources. The question, therefore, is how to achieve this? This paper explores the predominant thinking of the sector’s leadership, highlighting its inability to fill the present intellectual vacuum. It goes on to explore how the thinking from the service user movement, notably the idea of independent living, holds the promise of authentic and sustainable change. (Edited publisher abstract)
A proposed eligibility and assessment framework to support delivery of the government's vision for a new care and support system
- Author:
- SLASBERG Colin
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Care Services Management, 7(1), 2013, pp.26-37.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The Government has acknowledged a new approach to the issue of eligibility and assessment is required to deliver its vision for a transformed care and support system. The paper identifies the lessons that need to be learned from the failures of the current system if a new system is really to deliver the new vision for social care. It goes on to propose how such a system might be constructed. The paper also sets out why the Government's current proposals (Autumn 2013) will fall a long way short. They amount to virtually no change to a system that has not only failed to deliver equity or transparency, but also in the process has had an oppressive and damaging effect on the process of assessment and support planning, acknowledged as the cornerstone of the care and support system. The paper also suggests that an approach to eligibility that delivers all that is expected of it will unavoidably challenge some key elements of current strategies to personalize care and support, leading to a need for them to be re-envisioned. (Publisher abstract)
Shortchanged by the Care Bill
- Author:
- SLASBERG Colin
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Matters (e-Magazine), September 2013, pp.18-19. Online only
- Publisher:
- The College of Social Work
The author says that the Care Bill appears to provide some answers to the eligibility conundrum, but the proposals to implement it are disappointing (Publisher abstract)
Government guidance for the Care Act: undermining ambitions for change?
- Authors:
- SLASBERG Colin, BERESFORD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 29(10), 2014, pp.1677-1682.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The UK Government claims to be creating a historic change to social care in England through the Care Act by putting people in control of their support. However, the authors argue that this is fundamentally contradicted by the draft guidance published to support the Act which amounts to a formula for maintaining the prevailing resource-limited approach to assessing and meeting needs. The authors set out how the guidance, whilst often imploring councils and practitioners to be person-centred, contains a number of gaps and contradictions in key areas that will encourage councils to perpetuate the current approach. They argue that councils with a genuine commitment to being person-centred could refer directly to the Care Act to create an alternative future, while service users and their allies could bring about systemic changes if they use the Act to establish new rights. (Edited publisher abstract)
The increasing evidence of 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, 30(2), 2013, pp.91-105.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
Last year the authors published an article that set out the evidence that shows how the current government strategy is failing in its aims of delivering either personal budgets or personalisation. It used information up to the year 2010/11. This article updates the evidence base to include data from 2011/12 along with an evaluation of other activity and data sources since the article was written. That includes the second national survey of Think Local Act Personal – the body funded by Government to progress the strategy – and In Control, the body acredited with its design. This new evidence strengthens the argument that the strategy is failing, notwithstanding the apparent government view to the contrary, adding urgency to the need for a change in direction if personalisation is to be made a reality for all. (Edited publisher abstract)