Personal budgets, what next?

Blog by Martin Routledge

National Programme Manager, Think Local, Act Personal

At the latest Think Local Act Personal partnership meeting this week, we had the chance to collectively reflect on what we'd been able to achieve these past 12 months. One of the big projects for us in 2011 was to review a wide range of information and evidence about the state of play with personal budgets. You can see the detail of this in our report Personal Budgets - Taking Stock and Moving Forward

The Partnership also published the biggest survey yet of outcomes and experiences from the point of view of personal budget holders and family carers themselves. Over the past few months, I have also had the chance to talk to dozens of the local authority managers tasked with implementing personal budgets locally and hear from many of those directly affected - people using personal budgets and families.

These reports showed a mixed picture as councils now try to achieve the policy expectations for 2013. There is encouraging news from outcomes surveys, which largely show that when delivered properly, personal budgets help people get good outcomes for themselves and their families. Their experiences also point to what good delivery looks like. It's been encouraging to hear about the different efforts to further develop various forms of PBs - such as individual service funds - and how groups currently more on the margins can benefit, including people with dementia.

More challenging though, in tough financial times, are the persistent themes of restrictive and expensive processes; that some groups are clearly not yet benefitting well; and worries that council managed personal budgets need to promote greater choice and control.

From managers, I have often heard the view that the right balance needs to be struck between challenging objectives on numbers and doing things right. They worry that though numbers might increase, this is not a simple proxy for many more people self-directing. Interestingly, at a recent event, there was much more of an appetite amongst managers that they be required to transparently demonstrate progress at a local level - numbers, outcomes and processes.

The Think Local Act Personal Partnership will continue to do all it can to support good delivery and share learning about ways to make progress. We have already published a number of practical materials in the past few months based on solutions people are finding and trying around the country including implementing lean process, improving direct payment delivery and taking a different approach to support planning.

In April we will be launching a national self-directed support forum. This will bring together people determined to find and share solutions to support the good delivery both of personal budgets and of wider approaches to personalisation and to offer advice to local and central government. Watch this space for news and practical ideas in the months to come.