Personalisation: scrutiny toolkit being developed for councils

A local government agency is establishing a toolkit for backbench local councillors to scrutinise the rollout of personalisation in their authority.

The Improvement and Development Agency is developing a set of questions that council scrutiny committees – whose role is to monitor the work of authorities’ ruling executives or cabinets – can ask about progress on personalisation.

The kit – which is likely to be published in November – comes with the Department of Health and local government leaders having recently published a set of milestones, setting expectations of progress for councils over the last 18 months of the Putting People First programme.

Under Putting People First, councils are expected to transform adult social care from 2008-11 through the expansion of personal budgets and direct payments, a shift in resources from acute to preventive services and by providing comprehensive information and advice to all users and carers.

The IDeA’s strategic adviser for children, adults and health services, Andrew Cozens, said the agency was also trialling a peer review approach to adult care where a group of officers and councillors from a council that has progressed well on personalisation would be resourced to go into another council.

One such review will take place soon in a council in the North East.

Cozens emphasised that the reviews would not just be about personalisation, and that councils who are peer reviewed should not be seen as slow performers in the rollout of personalisation. 

Related stories

Personalisation: Councils given benchmarks on progress

Personalisation milestones

Councils urged to measure up to personalisation standards