Budgets and beyond: Interim Report

Published: November 2011

The aim of the Budgets and Beyond project is to find out how to realise the ambitions of personalisation when public funds are increasingly scarce, without exacerbating adverse effects for those intended to benefit from social care. A more personalised approach to supporting people can genuinely help to improve individuals’ autonomy and self-determination, as well as the quality of their lives. But personal budgets on their own will rarely be enough to ensure that people have the opportunity and support to achieve the outcomes they want. There is a risk that personalisation could leave individuals feeling isolated and taking atomised decisions that disempower them and their service workers, and fail to improve well-being. These risks may be intensified as funding is reduced for social care, if personal budgets are cut, or if support for budget holders is reduced or withdrawn.

This interim report from SCIE and the New Economics Foundation (NEF) is the first stage of the project. It is a review of current policy and practice of personalisation and an analysis of the potential of co-production to improve outcomes for individuals.

Stage two will be a dialogue with people receiving support, practitioners, carers, policy makers, and experts in professional and everyday practice. A series of workshops will explore how different groups of people – including budget holders, self-funders, carers and staff - experience services.

Stage three will be preparation to test practical change: working with contacts developed throughout the project to identify opportunities for practical experimentation and draft up recommendations for practical work to develop the gaps and opportunities identified in stages one and two.