Think Local Act Personal Tag Listing

by John Waters John Waters leads In Control's technical, research and evaluation programme and is managing the 2nd National Personal Budgets Survey, which has been commissioned by TLAP and will be delivered by In Control and Lancaster University in March 2013. The personalisation of care and support services has been at the heart of our social care policy for some years now.

Rethinking risk - Sarah Carr, SCIE For people who use or work in mental health services the term 'risk of harm to self or to others' is an all too familiar phrase, derived from legal and professional terminology. So it's not surprising that people with mental health problems are often the subject of discussions about risk, danger and safety, most recently among practitioners and others involved with introducing self directed support and personal budgets in social care and health.

Bridging the gap: self-directed support and the current realityBy Bridget Warr, Chief Executive of UK Homecare AssociationMaking 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.

How to commission really good direct payment supportBy Simon Stockton, Director of Groundswell PartnershipDirect payments lead to better outcomes than managed budgets. So said the POET survey published in June last year.

Best Practice in Direct Payment Support: A guide for commissioners was originally funded by the London Joint Improvement Partnership and describes how to commission really good direct payments support by showcasing examples of innovative practice. It provides a practical toolkit to benchmark against best practice, identify gaps and build a shared view with local people and providers of how to develop the support needed to make DPs an attractive option for more people.

This project explores the potential for co-production to improve outcomes for those individuals (along with their families and support networks) who are intended to benefit from the move towards greater personalisation of care and support services, including people who have personal budgets or are self funders. The call for care services to be 'personalised' has gathered strength over the last two decades and is a major policy objective of the Coalition Government.

The Easy Read document below gives an overview of the Making it Real framework. More information is available on our Making it Real webpages.

Blog by Martin Routledge National Programme Manager, Think Local, Act Personal At the latest Think Local Act Personal partnership meeting this week, we had the chance to collectively reflect on what we'd been able to achieve these past 12 months. One of the big projects for us in 2011 was to review a wide range of information and evidence about the state of play with personal budgets.

This paper, commissioned by the West Midlands Joint Improvement Partnership (JIP) provides a framework for Councils in shifting the balance away from risk aversion towards supported positive risk taking. The aim is to share risk between the individual using services (regardless of funding source), their family, carers, professional care staff, third parties and the Council.

Think Local, Act Personal has developed new advice and thinking around how to reduce bureaucracy by developing three linked papers:Adult Social Care Minimum Process Framework Improving Direct Payment Delivery Re-thinking Support Planning: Ideas for an Alternative Approach These three linked papers show that to achieve good results that make a difference to people's lives, there needs to be simplicity and clarity around the processes of Personal Budgets.