Personalisation 

Personalisation offers the Service User Choice and Control over the Shape and Support of the Care they require. 

 

Using a Brokerage Like Telopea Managed Services Limited offers and organised strategy for carer payments 

 

 

 

Personalisation is a social care approach described by the Department of Health as meaning that “every person who receives support, whether provided by statutory services or funded by themselves, will have choice and control over the shape of that support in all care settings". 

 

While it is often associated with direct payments and personal budgets, under which service users can choose the services that they receive, personalisation also entails that services are tailored to the needs of every individual, rather than delivered in a one-size-fits-all fashion. 

 

It also encompasses the provision of improved information and advice on care and support for families, investment in preventive services to reduce or delay people's need for care and the promotion of independence and self-reliance among individuals and communities. 

 

As such, personalisation has significant implications for everyone involved in the social care sector. 

 

 

The key test of personalisation's success is the extent to which it improves the lives of service users and their carers. There is evidence that this is taking place as a result of personal budgets but there are also concerns that a number of groups - people with dementia, those with other mental health problems and those who lack mental capacity - are not yet benefiting from this approach. 

 

 

Personalisation is having a significant impact on the roles of social care professionals, all transformed through personal budgets. 

 

Social Workers should encourage Service Users to assist in assessing their own needs, with or without support and play a full part in drawing up a wide-ranging support plan, rather than a narrower care plan, and directly purchase or choose the services they want. 

 

As a result, councils have created a range of new roles to support service users in carrying out these tasks or commissioned external organisations, including user-led organisations. 

 

 

A Personal Budget is a sum of money allocated to you as a result of an assessment of your needs. The amount of money you are awarded is based on the 'eligible needs’ you have at that time. Eligible needs are those which the local council's policy says it has a duty to support you with. 

 

To start with you are given an ‘indicative budget’ (an estimated budget) so that you can develop a support plan, with help from others as necessary, based around what matters to you and what works for you. This gives you the chance to have more control over how your support is provided. 

 

 

A Personal Budget is not in addition to mental health services and support, but a different way of making the ‘social care’ element of the funding available. 

 

By April 2013, all councils should be offering offer Personal Budgets to all those who are eligible to receive support, including people with mental health needs. 

 

 

Personal budgets were introduced in 2008 as part of a new process to give people greater control over the way they receive their support. This is usually called Self-Directed Support and is one aspect of the changing approach to meeting people’s needs called ‘Personalisation’. 

 

 

 

 

Some of the ways in which people using mental health services have chosen to use their Personal Budgets are: 

 

 

 

The increased choice and control provided by a Personal Budget has enabled people who use mental health services to meet their needs in a far greater variety of ways than was possible before the introduction of self-directed support. In every case listed below, the local council was satisfied that the activity or item paid for was directly related to meeting needs for which the Personal Budget was provided.