Glasgow City Council’s Executive Committee has agreed to invest over half a
million pounds to introduce personalisation and Self Directed Support across the
city over the next three years.
The decision which was taken on October 7, follows a successful pilot project
within Learning Disabilities Services in East Glasgow CHCP.
Self-directed support will be first introduced in Glasgow across all of the city’s
learning disabilities services. Thereafter, self-directed support will be rolled out
to people with physical disabilities, children with disabilities and people with
mental health issues.
The decision will mean service users undertaking a self-evaluation questionnaire
as the starting point to help identify their needs and then devise a support plan
to meet those needs in consultation with their social worker.
The service user is then allocated an individual budget, which is used to plan how
their needs are met and support arranged. Service users may choose to arrange
support in different ways and take maximum control through an approach called
self directed support.
Personalised support arrangements include a variety of flexible and creative
options such as employing a personal assistants, using technology or purchasing
support from a wide range of providers or combinations of these. The individual
budget must always be used to meet the outcomes identified in the person’s
support plan.
Glasgow’s move towards personalisation of social care follows the widespread use
of self-directed support in England along with forthcoming legislative moves by
the Scottish Government, which would require service users to opt out of self-
directed support.
With12% cuts in social care budgets anticipated over the next three years,
personalisation also represents the fairest way to ensure that all people who need
support are allocated a share of the available resources.
Councillor Matt Kerr, the council’s Executive Member for Social Care, said: “The
evidence also shows that self-directed support allows people to take more control
over their daily lives.
“Self-directed support can empower service users and put them firmly in charge
of the support they receive. It would let our service users choose exactly which
services they use, when they use them and who they get those services from.
“The council must be prudent as we deal with changing budgets and all evidence
indicates that self-directed support is more cost effective than providing support
in the traditional way. We have finite resources to work with and self-directed
support can help us achieve a better balance of fairness and transparency for all
service users.”
It is proposed that £520,000 will be invested in the implementation of this plan
between 2011 and 2013. Based on the English experience, it is anticipated that a
resource redirection of 20% can be achieved against existing budgets.
There are 1800 service users with Glasgow learning disability services, 900 with
physical disability services, 3000 with children’s disability services and 1950
with mental health services. Service users would retain the right to opt-out of
self-directed support and use supports provided directly by social work services
although this would be within the confines of an individual budget.
Glasgow east has been one of three test sites in Scotland. The national move
to personalization of social care has been expressed in the 21st Century Review
of Social Work (Feb. 2006), Scottish Government draft personalization strategy
(Feb. 2010), the Scottish Government consultation on the personalization bill
(expected by Sept 2011) and the COSLA Health and Well-being Committee (Sept
2009). Self-directed support also features in the policy statements of all major
political parties in Scotland.
