Personalisation of social care services begins with you, as an individual user of adult social care services, identifying what you want to achieve (your outcomes). It puts you at the heart of decisions about your care and promotes your independence, choice and control about how you live.
Norfolk County Council Adult Social Care Services will then work with you and, if you wish, your family, friends, carers and others to develop a plan of how you will be supported to achieve these outcomes. We will work out whether you are eligible for any public funding to help to pay for those services. We can also put you in touch with people who can provide the right services for you. This is different from the traditional way of delivering social care services, which has focused on the needs of groups of people rather than the individual.
Allied to Direct Payments and Personal Budgets this has made a significant change to the way users of adult social care services can manage their lives. There is a huge opportunity here for the voluntary sector to provide services Direct Payments' holders can purchase, as well as supporting carers. Here is an opportunity to roll back the state and put power into the hands of individuals.
Unfortunately, but understandably, many individuals and their carers are fearful of the responsibility cast upon them and the bureaucracy involved. There is the problem also that carers can focus more on securing respite than meeting the needs of the individual cared for.
Undoubtedly there are many challenges ahead for the new(ish) regime, but already there are examples of pioneering work. Recently I came across Stepping Stones where Direct payments have been used to open a cafe run by individuals in receipt of Direct Payments. Some of these individuals have secured NVQs. Stepping Stones illustrates that individuals in receipt of Direct Payments and their carers can lead fulfilling lives so long as there is collaboration with the statutory and voluntary sectors.
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