As long as there is social care, many of the people who need help will need to have it provided directly and commissioned, arranged and supervised by social workers. The extent of their difficulties will be so great that they have no spare resources to devote to arranging their own care.
But who's to say who'll benefit from personalisation, and who won't?
I recently met the mother of a young man with severe learning disabilities. She and his father had cared for him at home for 30 years. She had always been afraid that, needing 24-hour care, he would need a residential placement if they didn't look after him, and that wouldn't give him the kind of personal attention that she felt he needed. Unfortunately, her body was succumbing to the normal ageing process, and she couldn't carry on providing the physical care her son required.
With the support of adult care services, the local direct payments support agency, and a housing association, she arranged for her son to have shared ownership of a house, and a team of carers providing 24-hour, sevendays- a-week cover. She manages recruitment and selection, and the supervision of his carers, while the support agency helps with payroll issues.
Now, he goes to the pub several times a week, and frequently visits a local nightclub. His carers say that he enjoys the music and the atmosphere - and the occasional beer. He's never been more responsive, and has never laughed so much. His mother feels that she now has a new lease of life, and has started paid employment for the first time in 30 years.
Most importantly, she feels that her son's future is assured, as she and her husband grow older.
The results of Community Care's survey seem to show a diminished level of support for personalisation. Perhaps this is just an adjustment, a realisation that personally controlled
care is not for everyone. Perhaps it indicates a lack of understanding of how personalisation could change lives for the better.
Perhaps it indicates a lack of ambition and of understanding within adult social care departments themselves - perhaps some professionals still view the whole personalisation agenda as privatisation by the back door.
But if it can free people's lives like this, or like mine, then isn't it everyone's duty to find ways to make it work for those people it can help?
Simon Heng manages a mental health residential service
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