Sometimes people need support
to be in control of their personal budget. While some people think
this should be delivered by an independent professional, we have
argued strongly that all the evidence suggests that this should be
only one minority form of support. Instead we promote
community-focused brokerage.
When we developed the model of self-directed support back in
2003 we surprised many observers by rejecting the assumption that
self-directed support would only be possible if people could access
'service brokers' or 'care navigators.' The evidence suggests that
this will only repeat the errors of the past in encouraging a
certain class of people to believe they 'know better' than older
people, disabled people or their friends and families.
Of course some people do need extra support to plan, organise and
manage support; but it makes more sense to encourage the widest
possible group of people to provide that support, and to do all we
can to make sure that it is as easy as possible for people to take
control without undue complexity or professionalism. Instead of
thinking about brokers as people, we proposed that we think about
the function of brokerage and try to identify the best people to do
the different kinds of things people might need help with.
Simplifying somewhat it seems that there are at least six different
groups who can offer some or all of the different elements of
brokerage support:
We have published a number of papers exploring these ideas. The
most recent, 'New Support Systems. of which can be found
below.
One interesting and positive example of working in this way has
been demonstrated by Barnsley who have developed a hub to promote
brokerage from across the whole community. To read more see the
downloads below.
Last Updated : 21 January 2011. Page Author: Paul Ferguson.
