Personalisation in Focus

Making it Real - more than an idea

With Think Local Act Personal now confirmed that it will continue transforming health and care through personalisation and community-based support, the Making it Real (MiR) workplan endeavours to improve outcomes, raise awareness and keep the momentum going! Given that I Co-Chair 'Making it Real', I believe - as do my colleagues - that it is fundamental to everything we do. In a time when budgets are severely reduced, people who use services are experiencing devastating cuts to their support packages and relationships are being strained and damaged, we all need to play our vital part.

The positive changes we make to our services, whether we use or provide them, will not come solely from the windowless offices of statisticians and bureaucrats - changes we all want will happen at the grass-root level. As many of you will know, MiR helps to facilitate those conversations about local services; for some, it is a starting point because for one reason or another people who use services and carers have struggled to have their voices heard and their views turned into actions. For others, especially localities with existing co-productive methods and strong, equal partnerships, MiR can support anywhere from outlining action plans to establishing priorities.

I'm extremely impressed with how adaptive, flexible and inclusive the programme is and this is essential for ensuring people have more choice and control over their lives. I've been involved with MiR for a number of years now and when I speak to people about it, I get one of three responses:

• "I use it, I like it, it works for me and the services I use"
• "I've never heard of it but I like the idea of it"
• "I've heard of it, I like the idea of it but I'm sceptical it will make a difference"

All three responses need to be incorporated into our planning for the future of MiR; where it is working well, we need to celebrate that, share the good practice and create a frenzy of activity where people demonstrate and talk about how they have improved services and life chances of disabled people. We also need to publicise how the concept and blueprint for MiR can be adapted to meet the needs of other services, outside of the 'usual suspects' when we think about health and social care. This is extremely relevant for User-led Organisations, as localities need to resource and utilise their local, empowered groups to provide some or all of the essential support that ensures disabled people achieve 'Independent Living' (I am using the term with the original definition, created by the Independent Living Movement).

Furthermore, we need to mainstream Making it Real, especially its core principles. When I was introduced to the initiative, I got the notion of empowerment from it; the simplistic approach, the themes which make up the foundation of MiR were so obvious, yet not reflected in mine or my peer's support and certainly not felt when navigating the process for accessing services. It reinforced the message, 'I have a right to choose the care I want and need, I have a right to be involved in shaping my services, I demand to be valued and respected in my community'. We are champions of MiR and must make an effort to inform our peers, groups that we work with, colleagues and especially those in decision-making positions, to look at MiR and act on it - positive action leads to positive change!

Finally, and arguably the most important, how do we ensure people are fully aware of what MiR stands for and what potential it has for that person or service? I was asked this question recently at an event and I explained the process of how it works, what organisations/services are required to do, how co-productive methods are paramount etc. It was later on that evening, as I clicked and scrolled through the action plans and priorities set by Making it Real sites, that I realised how important that part of the programme is. By looking at their plans I could answer their question with specifics for a particular service or location; not only that, I could use it to encourage other services and areas to think about personalisation, choice and control etc. I could also use them to monitor and evaluate if the changes being made, and the priorities being set by my services, are the right ones.

It is quite evident that not every site has formulated an action plan or finalised their priorities. I would like to think that over the next three years more will do so, mainly for the reasons stated above but also because MiR does not end with acknowledging what it stands for.

Making it Real is about:

• Where do I want to get to?
• How do I get there?

Do you know the answer to those questions and, most importantly, are you talking about them with others?