by Peter Beresford
Something rather worrying currently seems to be happening to personalisation. It's unlikely that many social care managers or professionals have managed to avoid this terms in 2008. This hideous piece of jargon has increasingly crept into our consciousnesses. But that's not the problem that concerns me.
The government has made it clear that personalisation represents the future direction of travel of social care. Their mantra has been: it's not whether the future is personalisation. It is how it will be implemented. And this time, policymakers have put their money where their mouth is, pouring half a billion pounds plus into a three year rolling-out programme.
Polarisation of opinion
The problem that worries me is the increasing polarisation of opinion that seems to be taking place around personalisation. People appear to be dividing into separate camps as pros and cons, enthusiasts and opponents. A slight element of cultism seems to have crept into the debate. Some very big claims have been made for personalisation and now something of a reaction appears to have developed, as policymakers at local and national level enter the first stages of trying to making personalisation real and transforming pilots for a few thousand people, into practical positive provision for more than a million. At recent conferences, while those on platforms making the case for personalisation are generally very upbeat, service users and face to face practitioners attending are more often asking cautious and sometimes worried questions about the impending realities they will have to deal with.
We only have to look at Community Care's own pages to see this division of opinion developing. Service users who have received personal budgets in pilot schemes highlight the gains. Consultants are optimistic, But doubters raise bigger issues and worry about the policy, political and economic context. The temperature is rising.
Complex issues
Such a broadening polarisation and division of opinion can hardly be helpful. If personalisation is going to work, it will need everyone's support, involvement and ownership. We already know from the emerging evidence that some complex issues are raised in relation to unifying different streams of funding and also for some particular service user groups, including those with multiple and high support needs.
Another user group for whom the move to personalisation appears complex, is mental health service users. Not only is the existing approach to mental health services and support still heavily institutionalised and medicalised, but also the inappropriate and unhelpful association of mental health service users with threat and violence, means that there are likely to be big hurdles to overcome if all the gains to be offered by personalisation in enabling positive risk taking are to be achieved.
Power to the people
That's why it's doubly helpful that the Social Perspectives Network, Changing Minds and the Social Care Institute for Excellence are jointly hosting a national study day exploring Personalisation and mental health: Power to the people? on the 8th July in Northampton (http://www.spn.org.uk/). It is just such events, starting with the aim of informing and providing information to help people become part of the discussion, which are now most needed for personalisation to progress successfully.
This event explores the policy, theory and perhaps most important, the practice of personalisation, self directed support and individual budgets. Presenters come from a wide range of perspectives, and include contributors from service user and practitioner viewpoints. There are also interactive workshops exploring some of the choices service users from a range of backgrounds have found useful in their recovery, the development of community resources through co-production, and the power imbalances between health, social care and the voluntary sector which impact on what choices are offered.
Such events, rooted in reality and experience and committed to open debate and discussion, will have a key part to play in rolling out personalisation over the next months and years.
For further information and all queries please contact: Jean Heal, Email: spn@scie.org.uk; Phone: 0207 089 6864
Polarisation of opinion
The problem that worries me is the increasing polarisation of opinion that seems to be taking place around personalisation. People appear to be dividing into separate camps as pros and cons, enthusiasts and opponents. A slight element of cultism seems to have crept into the debate. Some very big claims have been made for personalisation and now something of a reaction appears to have developed, as policymakers at local and national level enter the first stages of trying to making personalisation real and transforming pilots for a few thousand people, into practical positive provision for more than a million. At recent conferences, while those on platforms making the case for personalisation are generally very upbeat, service users and face to face practitioners attending are more often asking cautious and sometimes worried questions about the impending realities they will have to deal with.
We only have to look at Community Care's own pages to see this division of opinion developing. Service users who have received personal budgets in pilot schemes highlight the gains. Consultants are optimistic, But doubters raise bigger issues and worry about the policy, political and economic context. The temperature is rising.
Complex issues
Such a broadening polarisation and division of opinion can hardly be helpful. If personalisation is going to work, it will need everyone's support, involvement and ownership. We already know from the emerging evidence that some complex issues are raised in relation to unifying different streams of funding and also for some particular service user groups, including those with multiple and high support needs.
Another user group for whom the move to personalisation appears complex, is mental health service users. Not only is the existing approach to mental health services and support still heavily institutionalised and medicalised, but also the inappropriate and unhelpful association of mental health service users with threat and violence, means that there are likely to be big hurdles to overcome if all the gains to be offered by personalisation in enabling positive risk taking are to be achieved.
Power to the people
That's why it's doubly helpful that the Social Perspectives Network, Changing Minds and the Social Care Institute for Excellence are jointly hosting a national study day exploring Personalisation and mental health: Power to the people? on the 8th July in Northampton (http://www.spn.org.uk/). It is just such events, starting with the aim of informing and providing information to help people become part of the discussion, which are now most needed for personalisation to progress successfully.
This event explores the policy, theory and perhaps most important, the practice of personalisation, self directed support and individual budgets. Presenters come from a wide range of perspectives, and include contributors from service user and practitioner viewpoints. There are also interactive workshops exploring some of the choices service users from a range of backgrounds have found useful in their recovery, the development of community resources through co-production, and the power imbalances between health, social care and the voluntary sector which impact on what choices are offered.
Such events, rooted in reality and experience and committed to open debate and discussion, will have a key part to play in rolling out personalisation over the next months and years.
For further information and all queries please contact: Jean Heal, Email: spn@scie.org.uk; Phone: 0207 089 6864