On Thursday 12 January at 2pm David will co-host a webchat on personalisation in social care with Martin Routledge, Programme Manager for the Think Local Act Personal Partnership.
This presents a unique opportunity for you to ask questions to them both, and to join the conversation around personalisation.
At the recent Caring for our future engagement, personalisation formed an important topic for discussion, and David and Martin would be particularly interested in hearing from people responsible for commissioning or running social care services, or for embedding personalisation in service provision.
How to take part
Join the webchat here at 2pm on Thursday 12 January. You can register to receive a reminder before the webchat begins below. You can also submit questions in advance via the comment box below, or via twitter using the #behanwebchat hashtag.
Gateshead Advocacy Information Network is nearing the end of a 3 year DH funded project looking at the role and value of Independent Advocacy in personalisation. We see huge potential for the role of Independent Advocates to be promoted by Department of Health, but have found that this role is not readily being promoted by the Adult Social Care workforce, where people are not always offered the support of an Independent Advocate at the self-assessment stage, are experiencing cuts to care packages and require support to speak up and challenge decisions, and in some cases are being supported simply to access the assessment that they are entitled to.
Question – Does Department of Health recognise the vital role Independent Advocacy plays in personalisation, in promoting service user rights, choice and control and increased independence?
Individual Budgets
I am an independent Advocate for people with a learning disability.
Well meaning tomes abound from national and local authorities that there is need for advocacy services and there are indeed grants and commissioned services available to third sector organisations e.g. advocacy. I foresee the time in the very near future when advocacy services, especially for vulnerable people will have to come from peoples individual budgets. I cannot foresee a high percentage of my advocacy partners having the understanding to seek advocacy support especially if they have to pay for it from their individual budget, or indeed carers who may be appointees for a vulnerable person.
I know it is our job to ensure advocacy is promoted to all but for people with a learning disability their crisis only occurs when their crisis occurs so to set aside funds from their benefits before the event will not seem meaningful.
What are your thoughts on this as we all know that the emphasis is on prev ention rather than intervention?
Regards,
Bill Marsden
Crisis and Resettlement Advocate
People In Partnership
The paper, Personal Budgets – Checking the Results, emphasises the need to ensure that PBs are authentic and actually result in greater choice for people. Big Society ideals speak about the importance of engaging with communities to find their own solutions, and among other initiatives, The Department of Health’s Volunteering Fund show the Department’s recognition of the importance of volunteering within Health & Social Care. These ideals of greater choice and control, a whole community approach, and support from people who are not paid to spend time with you would appear to offer the opportunity for a step change in traditional social care.
We are concerned that in practice this is not the case, for example a LA with which we work requires service users who elect to have their budget managed by the LA to purchase services from off their framework. This same LA is focused on hourly rates rather than outcomes and does not recognise the costs or inputs from volunteers. This way of working stifles volunteering, locks down social capital and substantially shrinks a PB holder’s choice.
In the context of the Government’s ‘light touch’ approach to LAs, what is the way forward to ensure that PB holders get the choice and control which PBs are supposed to deliver?
Tracy Hammond
KeyRing
Personalisation must not be a code for cuts. The individual budget (IB) should reflect the level of service currently being received. What work is being undertaken to ensure local authorities resource allocation is fair?
What will be done to stimulate the market to ensure choice and allow for competition to drive up quality and prices down?
What will be done to ensure that people are aware of the rights in relation to not having to have the IB and their option of appealing against the allocation?
What training will be given to so called Mainstream services both statutory and private to ensure they are accessible to people with a learning disability?
Will brokeridge services be available to help people manage the IBs?
KInd regards
Phil Hetherington
Mencap
Hi there
a) What role would DoH like to see CQC, the regulator, playing in personalisation ?
and b) TLAP recommends direct payments rather than managed budgets. Any thoughts on how the market can be stimulated more effectively in this area particularly with Older People.?
regards
Michael Farrell
TLC Care Services
As a company we have supported the implementation of personalisation for older people in line with Objective 6 of the National Dementia Strategy across the North East region and are familiar with both the benefits and challenges! I am interested to know how Loca Authorities propose to audit the quality of personal budgets?
Apologies, the link to the training guide did not work last time. I trust this one does:
http://www.agenciaconsulting.com/news/agencia-training-helps-keep-people-with-dementia-at-home
HM Government in 2009/2010 invest some £520million pounds in to Personlization and refer to
a follow up question to the DoH and thier reponse.
Details of the Transforming Adult Social Care grant to Local Authorities, over the period 2008/9 – 2010/11 are contained within the following Local Authority Circulars (LAC):
LAC (DH)(2008)1:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/LocalAuthorityCirculars/DH_081934
LAC (DH)(2009)1:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/LocalAuthorityCirculars/DH_095719
LAC(DH)(2010)1: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/LocalAuthorityCirculars/DH_114788
The final year of the grant for 2010/11 was included within the baseline allocations to local authorities. In 2010-11 the Government allocated the largest part of this revenue grant – £237 million but also allocated an additional £33.5million capital allocation to help councils with some of the associated infrastructure costs.
Yet we had a figure of 113,000 in receipt of DP in England (2010/11)