Some staff may resist cultural change of individual budgets

Introducing individual budgets is a “major cultural change” that some staff may resist, social services directors heard yesterday.

Anna Coss, lead for West Sussex Council’s individual budgets pilot – one of the first – presented her authority’s experiences at an Association of Directors of Social Services seminar in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Staff taking part in the pilot are “very committed” but those yet to participate are wary, fearing loss of control, said Coss.

Individual budgets are the “key mechanism in the white paper for transforming services,” added West Sussex director of social services John Dixon.

Elizabeth Lynam, the Department of Health project manager for the individual budgets pilot programme told delegates that the government evaluation of individual budget pilots will examine if outcomes are improved for services users, within existing local authority budgets.