PERSONALISATION

Personalisation means thinking about care and support services in an entirely different way. This means starting with the person as an individual with strengths, preferences and aspirations and putting them at the centre of the process of identifying their needs and making choices about how and when they are supported to live their lives. 

It requires a significant transformation of adult social care so that all systems, processes, staff and services are geared up to put people first.

The traditional service-led approach has often meant that people have not received the right help at the right time and have been unable to shape the kind of support they need.

Personalisation is about giving people much more choice and control over their lives and goes well beyond simply giving personal budgets to people eligible for council funding.

Personalisation means addressing the needs and aspirations of whole communities to ensure everyone has access to the right information, advice and advocacy to make good decisions about the support they need. It means ensuring that people have wider choice in how their needs are met and are able to access universal services such as transport, leisure and education, housing, health and opportunities for employment, regardless of age or disability.

Personalisation means:

• tailoring support to people’s individual needs 

• ensuring that people have access to information, advocacy and advice to make informed decisions about their care and support

• finding new collaborative ways of working (sometimes known as co-production) that support people to actively engage in the design, delivery and evaluation of service

• developing local partnerships to co-produce a range of services for people to choose from and opportunities for social inclusion and community development

• developing the right leadership and organisational systems to enable staff to work in creative, person-centred ways

• embedding early intervention, re-ablement and prevention so that people are supported early on and in a way that’s right for them

• recognising and supporting carers in their role, while enabling them to maintain a life beyond their caring responsibilities

- Download the full SCIE personalisation report  

- Direct payments - arranging your own care services

- Direct payments for carers - arranging help and services