Personalisation through individual budgets: does it work and for whom?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Personalisation through individual budgets

T2 - does it work and for whom?

AU - Netten, Ann

AU - Jones, Karen

AU - Knapp, Martin

AU - Fernandez, Jose-Luis

AU - Challis, David

AU - Glendinning, Caroline

AU - Jacobs, Sally

AU - Manthorpe, Jill

AU - Moran, Nicola Elizabeth

AU - Stevens, Martin

AU - Wilberforce, Mark Robson

PY - 2012/12

Y1 - 2012/12

N2 - In England, 'personal budgets' are being implemented at a time of financial austerity. They are part of a growing trend internationally to give users of publicly funded social care and support more choice and control. In the individual budgets' (IB) pilot, people were allocated and had control over the way their IB was managed and spent, offering the opportunity to explore the potential of IBs to deliver better outcomes for people than conventional services and support. We describe the way we measured outcomes, the effects we found and how they varied between and within service user groups. For some groups, there were clear benefits from IBs. However, it should not be a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, and, in taking personal budgets forward, it is important to consider how best to address the particular challenges for older people, effects on social work practice and resource implications if the potential benefits are to be achieved. Social workers may find themselves implementing a policy with considerable potential, but which may prove very difficult to achieve in the current financial climate.

AB - In England, 'personal budgets' are being implemented at a time of financial austerity. They are part of a growing trend internationally to give users of publicly funded social care and support more choice and control. In the individual budgets' (IB) pilot, people were allocated and had control over the way their IB was managed and spent, offering the opportunity to explore the potential of IBs to deliver better outcomes for people than conventional services and support. We describe the way we measured outcomes, the effects we found and how they varied between and within service user groups. For some groups, there were clear benefits from IBs. However, it should not be a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, and, in taking personal budgets forward, it is important to consider how best to address the particular challenges for older people, effects on social work practice and resource implications if the potential benefits are to be achieved. Social workers may find themselves implementing a policy with considerable potential, but which may prove very difficult to achieve in the current financial climate.

KW - social care

KW - personalisation

KW - individual budgets

KW - outcomes

KW - service users

KW - older people

KW - ill/disabled adults

KW - social work

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871220074&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/bjsw/bcr159

DO - 10.1093/bjsw/bcr159

M3 - Article

SN - 1468-263X

VL - 42

SP - 1556

EP - 1573

JO - British Journal of Social Work

JF - British Journal of Social Work

IS - 8

ER -