Four in 10 councils miss personalisation target

Four in ten councils have missed a key target for the roll-out of personalisation, a survey has revealed.

By April all councils should have had a strategy for delivering information and advice about care and support choices in place. But only 60% had achieved this by June. In addition one in six councils were not at the planning stage for developing a strategy, the survey by advice provider Opportunity Links found.

By contrast, 12% had already started delivering universal information services ahead of a target to do so by October this year.

Stephen Burke, chief executive of charity and care advice provider Counsel and Care, said there was no excuse for the delays two-and-a-half years into the three-year social care transformation programme. “A lot of local authorities seem to be getting deflected by the need to make cuts and a lot of the building blocks to save money, through personalisation, have not been put in place,” he said.

The Department of Health has set a number of milestones to chart councils’ progress against the personalisation agenda.

As part of developing an information strategy councils should have analysed need, identified funding, engaged key partners and agreed a delivery model for the information service.

Local authority middle managers, who responded to the survey, blamed a lack of resources for the delays in implementation, with 40% citing this as the biggest barrier to implementation. More than 60% called for better practical guidance on implementing an information and advice strategy.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Local Government Association are collecting information on local authorities’ progress against the personalisation milestones.

The ADASS and LGA survey conducted between January and March this year found 69% of councils were “very likely” to have an information strategy in place by April and 19% said they were “fairly likely” to do so.

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