Bridging the gap: self-directed support and the current reality

Bridging the gap: self-directed support and the current reality
By Bridget Warr, Chief Executive of UK Homecare Association

Making sure choice and control can work for all, and reviewing the implementation of personal budgets and direct payments is a very current concern for those working in adult social care. We all know there is a big gap between what we want to achieve with self-directed support and the current reality, particularly for older people. There is a very pressing need to work on a common understanding of priorities so any person using any service is absolutely at the centre and directing the care they receive.

The work published in the TLAP Personal Budgets Stocktake (opens new window) and through the POET National Personal Budgets Survey (opens new window) last year show that outcomes for older people who use personal budgets and direct payments have improved, though not as much for other groups of people. At the same time, there are positive developments and good practices to build on.

That's why this week we launched a TLAP National Self-Directed Support Forum. It brought together a group of people who have experience and insights about the delivery of self-directed support; that are positive about working together to make progress and will take personal responsibility for helping to see that progress made. The group included people using public services and those commissioning and providing them; as well as social workers, academics and representatives of national and local government.

The forum will really drill down and focus on key aspects like making personal budgets work for older people, and finding ways of joining up health and social care provision for individuals. We'll meet in person several times a year, but will also operate as a supported e-network of members that will work to share solutions and provide mutual support. Where there are issues identified that we know we can bring our collective experience to tackle, we'll organise task and finish groups to develop the work and share it with the wider sector.

Our aim is for the forum to be solutions-focussed. A key principle is that we have to help find those solutions ourselves and not be wholly dependent on others to do so. This is not to deny the significant historical and cultural challenges that are not susceptible to being solved with wand waving. Rather it is to accept our leadership role in contributing to progress. We are inviting people to join the Forum who we believe will accept this challenge. It is clear to me that no one of us can take forward the work to tackle this on our own.

We are on a long journey towards self-direction but I believe we can achieve so much more by gathering people with a range of experiences - homecare and residential care providers, people who use services, user-led organisations, commissioners and other stakeholders - and use a collaborative approach to delivering best practice.

Every article and blog you read tells us what the challenges are. The TLAP Self-Directed Support Forum is very much focused on "what we are going to do about it" and I look forward to letting you know how we get on.

Bridget Warr is the chair of the TLAP Self-Directed Support Forum and is the lead TLAP board member for self-directed support.