Recently in Personalisation Category

Social workers in adult services are being asked to take blood and urine samples by NHS employers, according to a senior local authority director.

Jo Cleary, director of adult services at Lambeth Council in London, made the revelation before an audience at Community Care Live in London.

"I heard the other day that social workers have been asked to train in taking blood and urine samples," she said. "Is that the most important use of social workers' time or is it about multi-agency working?"

Social workers in adult services are being asked to take blood and urine samples by NHS employers, according to a senior local authority director.

Jo Cleary, director of adult services at Lambeth Council in London, made the revelation before an audience at Community Care Live in London.

"I heard the other day that social workers have been asked to train in taking blood and urine samples," she said. "Is that the most important use of social workers' time or is it about multi-agency working?"

Quick straw poll: Has the delivery of frontline adult social care services remained high on the agenda for your organisation, despite the economic crisis?

A large majority (84%) of social care workers and managers at the Transforming the Adult Social Care Workforce: Putting People First conference in London on Tuesday said yes.

By Mithran Samuel

Interesting interview in The Herald with head of Scotland's care regulator, the Care Commission, Jacquie Roberts, in which she emphasises how how much adult care services will have to change to deal with the demographic changes of the coming decades, particularly in rolling back institutional care.

Employing a personal assistant through websites like Gumtree is a risk, yes, but is it one service users should be willing to take?

At yesterday's Developing the Adult Social Care Workforce Conference, Haqeeq Bostan from the Essex Coalition for Disabled People said it was.

By Bronagh Miskelly

For one person it can mean getting out for more fresh air, for another a choice over when to eat their evening meal - personalisation is different for each service user.

The government has already made clear that the move to more personalised adult social services will be a performance indicator for councils in England over the next three years.

By Sally Gillen

Revolution is one of those words frequently misused. And in social care it's no different. Initiatives, schemes and new programmes are often hyped-up as revolutionary - usually by those who have designed them - when they are really nothing of the sort. Personalisation, however, is a rare example of change worthy of the 'R' word.

The General Social Care Council has announced that it will consult on whether personal assistants employed by direct payment recipients in England should be registered.

This is a very difficult area with many in the service user movement likely to suggest that compulsory registration - involving a Criminal Records Bureau check and having to meet minimum training requirements - curtails their freedom to employ who they wish. Against that range those who suggest that there are not only adult protection issues but workforce quality ones to take into account - particularly given estimates from Skills for Care that the number of PAs may increase ninefold over the next two decades and warnings that PAs' current access to training is limited.