A Brief History of In Control

In Control was born in 2003. It was set up as a project in order to find a new way of organising the social care system. It has developed into an independent charity committed to promoting active citizenship, community development and the reform of the welfare state.

The planning for In Control began when Steve Jones (then CEO of Wigan Council), Martin Routledge (Department of Health) and Julie Stansfield (then of North West Training Department Team) began to discuss how to reform the current social care system which was perceived as frustrating the lives of disabled people and making it harder for people to be active citizens. In July 2003 Mencap agreed to host the project which was jointly funded by the Department of Health and the first six local authority members: Wigan, Gateshead, Redcar & Cleveland, West Sussex, Essex and South Gloucestershire.

A small team was created, which included Simon Duffy, Helen Sanderson, Caroline Tomlinson, Carl Poll, Martin and Julie. Building on Simon's earlier work in London and Scotland the team together began to develop the Self-Directed Support model in collaboration with disabled people, families and the social care professionals from the 6 authorities. This led to the creation of the first Individual Budget, which was actually managed by Caroline herself, on behalf of her son Joseph. Despite very modest size of the project (equivalent to one full time person) In Control's work was very successful and was described in detail within In Control's first phase report:

0128-in Control report 2003-2005.pdf

In 2004 the government minister Stephen Ladyman became interested in the project and in particular the idea of an Individual Budget, which In Control had designed to be one part of the system of Self-Directed Support, and which gave everyone the right to know the budget for their own support.  In Control then began to offer support and advice to the government on the idea of Individual Budgets and Self-Directed Support. This led to numerous references to In Control's work in government policy:

In Control's Policy Impact

In 2005 the government began its Individual Budget Pilot Programme to test out the idea of Individual Budgets independently of In Control. At the same time In Control opened up membership of In Control to all local authorities in England. Most local authorities joined In Control and many started to implement Self-Directed Support and Individual Budgets seriously. Many became Total Transformation authorities and committed to the complete transformation of their services over to Self-Directed Support. The evidence from this new work was published in In Control's second phase report:

0550_Phase_Two_Report.pdf.pdf

This work led to the 2007 Putting People First policy which set out a cross-government commitment to transform the whole of adult social care:

Putting People First

In Control's local authority membership in England has now reached 120 of the 150 English local authorities. In Control has extended its work now to include work on:

• Children's services
• Health care reform
• Work and benefit reform
• Community development

In 2007 In Control became an independent company and 2009 it was registered as a charity. It is a membership organisation with members who are statutory organisations, independent organisations and members of the public. It also works as an equal partner in In Control International with its sister organisations in Australia, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:

In Control International