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The introduction of direct payments marked a dramatic change in the relationship between social services and service users. But last week, the government announced plans to go even further.

A report from the prime minister's strategy unit outlines a new system for enabling people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health problems to live independently. Currently, these groups have their support needs met through several budgets within and beyond social care, such as those for personal care, transport, employment, housing adaptations, training and education, equipment and advocacy.

The new system proposes amalgamating all relevant funding streams into one "individual budget" which the service user could decide how to spend, either on their own or with assistance.

The scheme is set to be piloted over the next three years "within existing resources" and the report envisages that it could be rolled out nationally by 2012. It adds that the case should be considered for submitting a bid to the 2006 spending review to enable further pilots. The Department of Health will take the lead for the scheme, supported by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Campaigners have welcomed the individual budget concept. Simon Duffy, national co-ordinator of the In Control project, on which the government's idea is based, says it could allow disabled people some "meaningful rights" over the money spent on services for them.
"If you think about personalised budgets as simply telling people what they are entitled to up front, that seems to me like a pretty good idea," Duffy says. "I would rather be in that position than be guessing or being stuck in some ongoing assessment process or fair access to care process where I just don't know what my rights are."

He says individual budgets would allow people to do new things to meet their needs more creatively.

Linsay McCulloch, deputy chief executive of learning difficulties charity Values into Action, describes the idea as a "leap forward", but one that will need a lot of work.

She highlights how, even after eight years of direct payments, people with learning difficulties are still struggling to gain the same level of access to them as other client groups and insists this must not happen with the new scheme too.

But with the take-up of direct payments patchy in each of the groups covered by this latest report, it remains unclear at this stage how the government will prevent individual budgets suffering the same fate.

John Knight, head of policy at disability charity Leonard Cheshire, says the report's high profile will help to avert this. He adds that it is important that direct payments continue after the new system begins as people should be able to choose between the two.

The tasks of local authorities will be determined by the pilots but the report says they should have a "key strategic role" in delivering the new system.

Tim Hind, an adviser to the Local Government Association, says this will involve them creating partnerships with the other agencies whose budgets would need to be pooled.

He welcomes the aim to ensure that resources are used to increase independence and to avoid situations where a failure to meet needs from one budget results in increased spending from another.

He dismisses suggestions that the new system is about a power struggle between councils and disabled people, explaining that local authorities are already moving towards empowering service users and giving them more control over the services they receive. "It's more about thinking about the role that local authorities have in terms of community well-being," he says.


Duffy is also optimistic. "From my conversations with senior managers in local authorities there are a lot of them who are up for it. There will be some people who are frightened and who are worried. But there are a lot who want to explore this and do realise that this is the way forward."

The report says individual budgets will require social workers to undergo a "cultural shift" from current service-delivery roles towards providing "self-directed support".

Duffy sees two key potential roles for social workers in the new system: as a broker, to help those who need assistance working out how to spend their budget, either independently or for a local authority; or a care manager, to let budget holders know how much they are entitled to.

"Social workers' old role might be rediscovered in this new system," he says. "If you are talking about personalised services, you are not talking about off-the-peg services. You need to design it yourself."

With most of the purchasing power in the hands of disabled people, Hind believes the character of local authority and partner agency commissioning will change to a strategic one, with the agencies ensuring availability of services that disabled people want to buy.

The proposed system would take several years to set up and Duffy predicts that more local authority commissioning would be needed - and that it would have to be more creative. He says centres for independent living would need to be developed for a wider group of people, and service providers would have to become competent in offering genuinely individual services.

He agrees that, in the long run, the commissioning role of local authorities will change to one of strategic overview, but emphasises that disabled people should play a big part in this.

While many in the social care sector support the idea of individual budgets, some are wary of the lack of detail. It is hoped that the forthcoming green paper on adult social care should flesh out some of the proposals and appease some of this concern.

• Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People from www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk

KEY CONCERNS

• Lack of detail on extending the individual budgets proposal to children and young people.
• Lack of detail on implementing the proposals on the ground.
• No figures on how much money will be available to implement the new measures.
• Concerns that the report's 2025 deadline for disabled people having access to full opportunities and choices is too far away.
• Comcerms that, with talk of a general election, the report could come to nothing.