The state of personalisation in 2011

Supporting service users to become employers
Community Care and Unison has found that social workers need advice on supporting service users to employ a personal assistant. Independent social worker Kelly Hicks offers some guidance.
Posted: 28 September 2011
(Pic: Rex Features)

Personal budgets debate
Two personalisation experts, Colin Slasberg (left) and Chris Hatton go head to head over the merits of personal budgets.
Posted: 29 September 2011

Service users fight restrictions on use of personal budgets
As councils place restrictions on personal budget use, Alexander Percival, who uses his to go on World War Two re-enactments, and others demonstrate why freedom to spend personal budgets is so important.
Posted: 31 May 2011
(Pic: UNP)

Personalisation debate pits service users against social workers
Community Care and Unison’s personalisation survey has sparked debate about the future of personalisation, with the views of service users apparently pitted against those of professionals. Can the gap between the two groups be filled?
Posted: 8 June 2011

Audio slideshow

Homeless people with mental health problems talk about how personal budgets have helped them in their recovery.

Vulnerable still face personal budget barriers
Several client groups, including older people and those with mental health problems, continue to face barriers in gaining personal budgets, say social care professionals.
Posted: 1 June 2011
(Pic: Rex Features)

Burstow raps councils for curbing use of personal budgets
Care services minister Paul Burstow has warned councils against limiting clients’ use of personal budgets, after our survey identified significant restrictions on use.
Posted: 1 June 2011

Councils ‘foisting direct payments on to users because of cuts’
Unison’s Helga Pile has accused councils of pushing users on to direct payments on cost grounds, after our survey found many authorities were making cash payments the default option for personal budgets.
Posted: 1 June 2011

Social workers lose faith in personalisation
Social care professionals’ support for personalisation has plummeted and only a minority now believe that personal budgets will benefit users in the medium to long-term.
Posted: 25 May 2011
(Pic: Rex Features)

Bureaucracy is damaging personalisation
Three-quarters of practitioners say there is now more bureaucracy in their roles as a result of personalisation.
Posted: 25 May 2011

Video

Key stats and views from social care professionals

Councils dogged by slow progress on personalisation
A significant minority of English councils have made slow progress on personalisation despite the three-year cash injection of £520m to drive it, say social care professionals.
Posted: 25 May 2011
(Pic: Rex Features)

How bureaucracy is derailing personalisation
Social workers in Hartlepool (pictured) may be cutting back on forms, but elsewhere our survey reveals widespread concerns that bureaucracy is derailing personalisation. What can be done to rescue the policy?
Posted: 25 May 2011
(Pic: Simon Ryder/UNP)

The rise of non-qualified social care staff under personalisation
Are concerns over use of non-social work staff to assess potential service users the complaint of a profession under threat or genuine worries?
Posted: 25 May 2011
(Pic: Rex Features)

An uphill battle?
Transforming adult care through personalisation has a long way to go, says Mark Drinkwater, a London-based community worker
Posted: 20 May 2011

What needs to change, fast
Let’s not allow bureaucracy to derail personalisation, says Martin Routledge, an early pioneer of personalisation in adult social care
Posted: 25 May 2011

Declining faith in personalisation
Is personalisation being badly implemented, and is it being used as a vehicle for cuts? Join the debate on CareSpace