Self-Directed Support: Personalisation, Choice and Control(Policy and Practice in Health and Social Care)

Since the late 1990s, there has been a concerted policy drive across social care towards cash based modes of support and strategies to personalise services. Support for this shift was initiated by the disabled peoples’ movement, both in the UK and globally. Policies introducing direct payments in lieu of provided services have been secured gradually as a central plank of the campaign for independent living. Subsequently successive governments have promoted a shift towards personalisation as part of a wider focus to develop local care markets and to facilitate enhanced choice and control in service provision. In Scotland, this has been pursued through new legislation for self-directed support. As the new policy is introduced local authorities and providers face challenges in transforming social care. The authors examine some of the key themes and debates emerging from the implementation of this policy. These include a look at the new language that is emerging, as well as the changing roles for users, carers, local authorities and service providers flowing from the new policy environment. They focus on the impact of change for front-line workers and a reassess the progress of the broader personalisation agenda across the UK and in Europe during a time of widespread austerity and financial cuts. Written for professional and post-graduate audiences Self-directed Support will stimulate those wrestling with these themes from policy and professional perspectives and provide essential analysis for those studying health and social policy.

Table of Contents:
Series Editors’ Introduction. List of Abbreviations. 1:Introduction; 2: Changing definitions and values in new cultures of care; 3: From pilot to mainstream: drawing on the experience of Self Directed Support test sites in Scotland; 4: Reflections on the transformational impact of SDS on support roles. 5: Personalisation in an age of austerity; 6: Discussion and conclusions: Self-directed support and the future of personalised social care in Scotland. References. Index.

About the Author :
Dr Charlotte Pearson is a Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Dr Julie Ridley is Reader in Social Policy and Practice at the University of Central Lancashire. Susan Hunter is a Honorary Fellow, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh.

Review :
'Given a subject characterised with highly charged rhetoric and the presence of powerful interests as ideas and governmental policy intersect, this book provides a very welcome cool, scholarly examination of its history and context. The book is wide ranging but succinct and written in an accessible style. It will be a valuable resource for anyone who wants to have a clearer grasp of how policy in relation to personalisation in social care – if the word ‘personalisation’ is given its ordinary English meaning of designing services around the individual - has got to where it is now, and where it might go in the future. The authors have a primary focus on Scotland. However, they draw on what is happening in the UK and across Europe. Also, because Scotland is grappling with the same issues that any nation needs to if it is to achieve greater personalisation, it has international relevance.' Disability and Society ‘Overall, therefore, this book comes highly recommended both for an academic and (perhaps particularly) for a professional audience. It is important that anybody involved in the development of social care is able both to accept the need for service users to be enabled to exercise increased levels of choice and control, and to understand the extent to which financial shortfalls might inevitably compromise this. The book’s insistence on this point helps to ensure its significance in the literature.’ Critical Social Policy