‘Staff must embrace individual budgets’

Some staff may resist individual budgets because they represent such a major change in practice.

Anna Coss, lead for West Sussex Council’s individual budgets pilot, told delegates that staff taking part in the pilot were “very committed” but those yet to participate feared losing control.

Individual budgets were the “key mechanism in the white paper for transforming services”, added West Sussex director of social services John Dixon.

Elizabeth Lynam, the Department of Health manager for the individual budgets pilot programme, told delegates that the government evaluation of individual budget pilots would examine if they improve outcomes within existing council budgets.