The Personalisation Agenda - Dissertation Example

In the same year, a concordat was issued between central government, local government, and the social care sector. The document is entitled “Putting People First: A Shared Vision and Commitment to the Transformation of Adult Social Care (2007)” and through it the idea of a personalized adult social care system was first introduced. The plan called for affording people maximum choice and control over the health care and services they receive. The plan dovetails a more broad-based government strategy that included the notion of “place-shaping” and other concepts contained in the local government white paper “Strong and Prosperous Communities” (2006).

In the 2008 Carers’ Strategy, the New Deal has advanced the initiatives of integrated and personalized services. Carers called for recognition of their work and expertise, better service coordination and information, improved collaboration between staff and agencies, and health and social care. The Carers’ Strategy was arrived at after wide consultation and with the cooperation and agreement of various government departments. Many of the themes articulated in recent developments in the personalization agenda are not new, having been contained in the community care reforms under the National Health Service and Community Care Act of 1990.

These reforms aimed to develop a needs-led approach wherein new arrangements for assessment and health care management would include individuals receiving tailored packages of care rather than block-contracted services. The practical advantage in the development of individual or personal budgets is the direct payments scheme, initially made available to disabled adults of working age, but since then has been extended to other groups. The success of the scheme covered some 54,000 individuals as of March 2007, including parents who cared for disabled children and young carers, who used direct payments.

The use of direct payments actually came about as an initiative championed by disabled people.