In Control, Lancaster University and Think Local Act Personal
have today Tuesday October 28th published the Third
National Personal Budget Survey sharing the experiences of more
than 4,000 people with personal budgets and their carers.
The report, focuses on the use of personal budgets in adult
social services and health across England and is the largest survey
to date looking at the impact that personal budgets are having on
people's lives.
More than 80 per cent of people surveyed said that a
personal budget had made things better or a lot better when it came
to dignity in support and quality of life.
At least two thirds also said their personal budget had made
things better or a lot better when it came to independence,
arranging support, mental health, control over their life, feeling
safe, relationships with family and people paid to support them,
friendships and self-esteem.
More than two thirds of carers also said that as a result of the
person they care for having a personal budget things had got better
or a lot better when it came to remaining well and being able to
continue caring as well as quality of life for them and the person
being cared for.
One of the most important findings was the very clear link
between people's experience of the process and the difference the
personal budget made to people's lives. Those that found the
process of getting and managing a personal budget easy were nearly
three times more likely to report good outcomes. Those that said
their views were included in the process were nearly twice as
likely to report good outcomes. People were also more likely to
report good outcomes if they had help to plan their support and if
they knew how much money was in their budget.
Interestingly the findings also show that people who used their
budget for personal assistants and community-based support rather
than more 'traditional services' reported their personal budget
making a bigger difference to their lives.
Age or social care group seemed to make little difference to how
well the personal budget worked for people, nor did whether their
personal budget was held as a direct payment, an individual service
fund or managed by the council.
Writing in the report's foreword, Minister of State for
Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP, said: "We must strive to improve
the outcomes people experience as a result of using personal
budgets not just focus on increasing the numbers. We should always
be asking 'are people getting better lives and support - and is the
experience simpler and more flexible?"
Commenting on the findings, Julie Stansfield, In Control's chief
executive said: "When used to their potential personal budgets are
an important tool enabling people to get control over their lives.
We have now moved on from questioning whether they have a role to
play in public services, they are a clear part of the future of
social services, education and health for people of all ages, but
the question now is what can we do to make them work for people in
the best possible way? This report gives us the clearest indication
to date on what's working and what's not in their delivery and
provides a very useful insight for councils and health
organisations on where they need to focus their efforts.
"A survey of 4,000 people is a significant number and critically
this survey is based on people's direct reported experiences
representing what it the reality for people. The positive
difference that personal budgets are making to people's lives
irrespective of their age or social care group is encouraging but
it is very clear from the survey that these differences are only
achieved when the control shifts from services to the
individual.
"However this is the third national personal budget survey we
have published with TLAP and it is disappointing to see yet again
such wide variations in delivery and process. There is much more
that can be done to improve delivery, in particular reducing
bureaucracy. Councils and health organisations to need to
learn from each other and make greater use of best practice."
Sam Bennett, Director of Think Local Act Personal, the national
partnership transforming health and care through personalised,
community-based support, said:"TLAP welcomes these findings and
will continue to work with our partners and others to address the
challenges of uneven personal budget delivery and the continuing
experience of frustrating and unhelpful process. Strong leadership
is needed to drive through the fundamental changes required to
secure a sustainable system of personalised care and support for
the future. The Personalisation Action Plan published earlier this
year called for councils to check their progress on personalisation
directly with people and carers by undertaking this survey and
signing up to Making it Real. Over the next 12 months, we
will add to and share our understanding of what works best to
deliver the very best results for people. It is particularly
important to learn the lessons from introducing personal budgets in
social care to ensure partners in health and education provide the
very best opportunity of making Personal Health Budgets and
Education Healthcare Plans improve the lives of people with long
term health conditions and young people with special educational
needs."
TLAP Co-chairs & National Co-production Advisory Group
members Marjory Broughton and Clenton Farquharson, said: "The
results from this survey are a powerful reminder of the reasons why
we are undertaking the challenging task of mainstreaming delivery
of personal budgets - that is to improve the experiences of people
wishing to live their lives in the way that works best for them,
their families and carers. There is much to learn about how we can
make things better for everyone. We hope practitioners will read
this report and act on its findings."
The report is based on the Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool
(POET) which has been developed by In Control and Lancaster
University over the past 10 years as a way to measure what's
working and what's not when it comes to personal budgets and
personalised care and support. It was originally for use in adult
social care but has now been developed for use in health,
children's services and education. A version for providers is also
in development.
Read our blog posts to see what others are saying
about the National Personal Budget Survey and POET
Downloads and related links
A copy of the Third National Personal Budget Survey, a summary
paper with findings across all sectors - adult and children's
social care and health, a PowerPoint presentation and infographic
with the key findings can all be downloaded below.
A separate report relating specifically to the data for personal
health budgets is also available, you can find out more about this
report
here.
In the summer we published a report based on the development of
POET for children's services and the experiences of children and
young people with special educational needs and disabilities, see
this page for more
information.
Think Local Act Personal is a national partnership of over 50
organisations committed to transforming health and social through
personalisation and community-based support. For more information,
including tools to help with improving the delivery of personal
budgets and self-directed support, visit:
http://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Browse/SDSandpersonalbudgets/
or get in touch at thinklocalactpersonal@scie.org.uk
Using POET
To find out more about POET and how your council can take part,
visit our POET webpages here or get in touch with us at poet@in-control.org.uk or
on 01564 821 650
Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP has
recommended that all councils should be checking people's
experiences through tools such as POET. POET has been included in
the TLAP action plan for 2014/15 as a key action for the sector
partnership to promote as best practice. To this end, funding has
now been made available to all adult social services in English
councils to access POET.
Last Updated : 18 June 2015. Page Author: Gaynor Cockayne.