Personalisation and the Transformation agenda in Lewisham

The Personalisation agenda will transform the way that services are delivered in Lewisham. Some of VAL's role will be to work alongside providers and the local authority in ensuring that this move to personalised services will result in better services for service users and ensuring that the voluntary organisations are supported as they redesign and market these new services. If you have any comments, or would like to find out more, please contact Mark on 020 8314 9841.

Perplexed by Personalisation?
Are you puzzled by Personalisation? Don't worry you're not alone. Plenty of people have difficulty understanding the concepts and the terms used as part of the Personalisation agenda.

For more information on Personalisation visit SCIE's website www.scie.org.uk. SCIE also have a handy guide for voluntary sector organisations at www.scie.org.uk/publications/ataglance/ataglance13.pdf.

Some useful resources are on the IPC website:
Voluntary Sector Role in Transforming Social Care For People With Disabilities

Building Constructive Market Relations

NAVCA has developed a simple Personalisation Health Check which can be used to assess organisations' readiness for personalisation. Details at www.navca.org.uk/teams/hsc/personalisation/

Puzzled by progress in personalisation? 

Personalisation is about giving people more choice and control over their health and social care support. Government guidance in Putting People First (2007) set out a comprehensive vision for social care. This included:

• The universal offer of advice and information 
• A focus on developing inclusive and supportive communities
• A focus on investing in prevention
• Introducing choice and control through the introduction of personal budgets and wherever possible direct payments.

Personalisation requires creativity, innovation and organisations across

the sectors working together in new and imaginative ways. It also aims to give people opportunities for employment regardless of age or disability.

In Lewisham the delivery of personalisation spans a range of activity from the provision of information and advice to the commissioning of specific care services. It also includes activity beyond that traditionally offered by social care and health services, such as community and market development to offer more choice and control to individuals.

In developing personalised services, listening to the views of service users as well as carers and other partners is key. A briefing paper submitted to Lewisham’s Healthier Communities Select Committee sets out in more detail the engagement and involvement of users, their carers and the community at different points in the delivery. Worth checking it out at http://tinyurl.com/c3cubfr

For further details on some of the most common terms used in Personalisation, check out the glossary below.

Glossary of terms used in Personalisation

Assessment / self-assessment
A measure of the capabilities of an individual, usually on a standardised form, to determine whether they require support. Self-assessment is a type of assessment carried out by service users themselves to determine their own needs.

Brokerage
Support given to service users to help them spend their money most effectively on services.

Care Quality Commission
Independent regulator of health and social care in England. They are responsible for regulating the care provided by the NHS, local authorities, private and voluntary organisations.

Direct payments
A cash payment paid directly to a service user for them to acquire their own support, rather than the council directly delivering services to them. These payments are intended to give users greater choice in their care.

Fair Access to Care Services (FACS)
A system for deciding how much support people with social care needs can expect to receive. It aims to help social care workers make fair and consistent decisions about eligibility and the level of support needed.

Indicative Amount
An estimate of how much money will be allocated to a service user in their  Personal Budget. It is only an indicator. This indicative amount is calculated according to the local authority’s Resource Allocation System (RAS). A final amount is only decided after a care plan has been drawn up explaining how the service user would like to use the money to meet their needs. 

Individual budget
A sum of money given directly to a service user that combines several sources of public funds, such as the Independent Living Fund, Supporting People and Disabled Facilities Grant. More ambitious than personal budgets, individual budgets were piloted in 13 local authority areas in 2006.

Personal budget
A sum of money given directly to a service user to plan and purchase their own support services.

Personalisation
The process of enabling people to have more choice and control of the services they receive.

Resource allocation system (RAS)
A system that calculates how much money a person is likely to need in their personal budget to arrange services appropriate to their needs.

Support plan
A document drawn up between a service user and a social worker that outlines what support is required and what it would achieve. This allows the service user to choose the right type of support to be delivered appropriate to their needs.