Making tailored social care a reality
A new manifesto argues for some basic building blocks to enable personalisation to be embedded into everyday social care and support
Last week saw the end of Putting People First – the programme that started in 2008 with the aim of personalising local authority social care in England. In its place we now have “son of PPF” – Think Local, Act Personal, a coalition of more than 30 social care organisations.
The new personalisation movement in social care was described last week as a “no-brainer” by Miranda Wixon, co-chair of the new coalition, but given the doubts of some in the sector about the impact of budget cuts on all care and support services, let alone more personalised services, this is a troubling time for many across the sector.
In last week’s SocietyGuardian, Martin Routledge, head of operations for charity In Control, argued that in a period of severe pressure on resources, there is a high risk of distraction from the personalisation agenda.
Today sees the publication of a manifesto that attempts to argue the case for those things that will “make personalisation real”. Design for Life: Laying the Foundations for Think Local, Act Personal is a short but influential document from a group of five people who represent a wide range of those involved in social care and support: Alex Fox, chief executive of Naaps, which represents very small providers; Martin Green, chief executive of the English Community Care Association, which represents large providers; Peter Beresford, chair of service user organisation Shaping Our Lives; Anne Roberts, chief executive of Crossroads Care; and Carole Cochrane, chief executive of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.
This small but influential group agrees with Routledge that we must not take our eyes off the prize of personalisation, for which people have fought long and hard. But they want to provide more than just a commendation of the principles of personalisation – they argue for some basic building blocks of good practice, to enable everyone involved, both inside and outside the government, to feel more secure about getting personalisation embedded into everyday social care and support.
“We are not attempting to fight the case for this or that specific national body,” says Fox. “We felt a lot of decisions were being made about removing bits of the sector infrastructure and it was hard to see how those actions added up to a vision. We need to move away from simply having the same old top-down system.”
The report puts forward seven specific ideas that the group believes would result in the sector feeling more supported and better able to move towards providing personalised care, despite the difficulties involved. It calls for:
• Better leadership;
• Improved partnerships at national and local level, including engaging with sectors such as employment, education, welfare, health and housing;
• Better knowledge and information for providers and individuals;
• Support for all those involved in changing working practices;
• A change in the way organisations think about risk, to have safeguarding that is risk aware, rather than risk averse;
• Encouragement for innovation;
• Getting a more diverse range of bodies involved in care, support and advocacy.
What does this mean for managers? Roberts says it is not about reinventing the wheel: “It has to be about fostering good partnership at a local level.” That is why the manifesto calls for both national and local bodies to engage more widely with professionals and managers in other sectors, such as employment and housing, that have a direct impact on people’s need for social care and support.
So far, so good – but is it naive to set out such a list of objectives in these tough financial times? The authors of the report acknowledge that they do not have all the answers, but that “we cannot simply dismantle the existing architecture and hope for the best”.
