The Bradford Approach to Personalisation
Personalisation is a term used to describe the ability to tailor a range of support services to meet individual's specific needs, and it is at the heart of the government's drive to transform social care.
The Bradford approach to implementing Personalisation is 'your life, your choice' - an approach that is based on self directed support by providing customers with individual accounts that they can spend on the care they require.
In 2006, the Government published a White Paper called 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say' which set out the need to give people greater control over their lives. This includes giving people the opportunity to choose and manage the type of support they receive, rather than be fitted into the services that are available.
Why do we need to change?
Citizen expectations are changing nationally and locally, and Bradford needs to respond and encourage demand from citizens for more information, choice and control. Demographics are also changing, there is an increase in the number of older people in communities who need support. Continuing to provide services in the traditional way is no longer sustainable.
Personalisation is to be rolled out nationally by 2011, and Central Government has set a specific target that by March 2001, 30% of service users and carers are to have received packages of care going through a self-directed support process. This involves individuals receiving a financial allocation or personal budget that they control if they wish to do so to meet their own care needs, rather than the traditional service- led approach. SDS has the potential to improve the lives of vulnerable people by offering them more choice and control.
To support councils in their transformation of adult services, each Council has been given resources in the form of the Social Care Reform Grant. Bradford Council has been granted £5 million over the three year period, which is being channelled to support the setting up and delivery of Bradford's personalisation vision.
Please feel free to download our series of 11 postcards from the related links below that explain personalisation and give some useful case study examples of how people are using personal budgets to stay independent.
