Supporting choice: Support planning, older people and managed personal budgets

TY - JOUR

T1 - Supporting choice

T2 - Support planning, older people and managed personal budgets

AU - Rabiee, Parvaneh

AU - Baxter, Kate

AU - Glendinning, Caroline

PY - 2016/7/1

Y1 - 2016/7/1

N2 - Summary: English policy emphasises personalised and flexible social care support using ‘Personal Budgets’ (PB) – preferably as cash direct payments. However, most older people opt for their council to manage personal budgets on their behalf. It is not clear what benefits of personalisation are available to this group of older people. This article reports research into the choices available to older people using managed personal budgets to fund home care services in three councils. It focuses on the roles of support planners, in councils and service provider agencies, who are central to supporting choice on the part of service users. Data were collected from three focus groups with 19 council support planning practitioners and interviews with 15 managers of home care agencies.• Findings: The study suggests that new commissioning and brokerage arrangements have the potential to give older people using managed personal budgets greater choice and control over their support. However, new communication barriers have also been introduced and some staff report receiving inadequate training for their new roles. Above all, resource constraints were reported to impede council support planners in encouraging users to plan creatively how to use personal budgets. Resource constraints also meant councils placed constraints on how flexibly home care agencies could respond to changing needs and preferences of older users.• Applications: The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of new arrangements for social work practice and some of the barriers that need to be addressed if the potential benefits of personalisation for older people holding managed personal budgets are to be achieved.

AB - Summary: English policy emphasises personalised and flexible social care support using ‘Personal Budgets’ (PB) – preferably as cash direct payments. However, most older people opt for their council to manage personal budgets on their behalf. It is not clear what benefits of personalisation are available to this group of older people. This article reports research into the choices available to older people using managed personal budgets to fund home care services in three councils. It focuses on the roles of support planners, in councils and service provider agencies, who are central to supporting choice on the part of service users. Data were collected from three focus groups with 19 council support planning practitioners and interviews with 15 managers of home care agencies.• Findings: The study suggests that new commissioning and brokerage arrangements have the potential to give older people using managed personal budgets greater choice and control over their support. However, new communication barriers have also been introduced and some staff report receiving inadequate training for their new roles. Above all, resource constraints were reported to impede council support planners in encouraging users to plan creatively how to use personal budgets. Resource constraints also meant councils placed constraints on how flexibly home care agencies could respond to changing needs and preferences of older users.• Applications: The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of new arrangements for social work practice and some of the barriers that need to be addressed if the potential benefits of personalisation for older people holding managed personal budgets are to be achieved.

KW - personalisation

KW - adult social care services

KW - personal budgets

KW - support services

KW - service users

KW - older people

KW - choice

U2 - 10.1177/1468017315581529

DO - 10.1177/1468017315581529

M3 - Article

SN - 1468-0173

VL - 16

SP - 453

EP - 469

JO - Journal of Social Work

JF - Journal of Social Work

IS - 4

ER -