Unit 6 - Personalisation - LO1 1.1-1.4 - Key features of personalisation

Question 1

What is personalisation?

Answer 1

• Recognising that the person has individual strengths, preferences, wishes and aspirations.
• Putting them at the centre of the process by identifying their needs and supporting them to make choices about the services they want so they can live the way they want to.

Question 2

What does personalisation mean to an individual?

Answer 2

• Empowerment
• Addressing needs
• Control
• Independence
• Participation
• Choice
• Preferences
• Meeting aspirations

Question 3

What is a personal budget?

Answer 3

An agreed amount of money that is used to deliver certain aspects of care set out in an individual’s support plan.

Question 4

What are the two ways that a personal budget may be taken by an individual?

Answer 4

Direct payments

Managed accounts

Question 5

What are the key features of personalisation?

Answer 5

• Personal budgets
• Co-production
• Choice and control
• Self-assessment of needs
• Changing role of professionals

Question 6

What are direct payments?

Answer 6

• Direct payment held by the person or, where they lack the mental capacity to look after themselves, by an authorised or nominated person.
• Individuals are given responsibility for making decisions; and can spend the money as they please as long as it relates to their support plan.

Question 7

What are managed accounts?

Answer 7

Account managed by the local authority in line with the person’s wishes.

Question 8

What is co-production?

Answer 8

• Collaboration or partnership between citizens and public services to achieve valuable outcomes.
• The idea is to empower citizens to contribute time, expertise and effort to their local communities.
• It recognises that individuals who use social care have skills and expertise that they can share with others.

Question 9

What is choice and control?

Answer 9

• Supporting and enabling individuals to make their own decisions about where and how care is provided and the support they need to live a full and independent life.
• Individuals may decide, for example, that they need to have better:
  Housing options
  Person-centred support plans
  Personal budgets
  Support in the form of a personal assistant

Question 10

What is self-assessment of needs?

Answer 10

• The individual works with professionals to look at the circumstances, situation and needs of the individual, carers, family members and others who provide informal support.
• The local authority will decide if the person is eligible for long-term social care support and, if so, how much money they will need to pay for this support.
• The assessment will collect information about how the individual’s care needs might be met. This could include identifying how preventative measures, home adaptions or information about support available in the community might meet their need.

Question 11

What is changing role of professionals?

Answer 11

• The control has moved from the professional to the person.
• Part of professional’s role is to provide the individual with all the relevant information and allow them to make their choice and their decision, without compromising safeguarding issues.

Question 12

What are the benefits of personalisation to an individual?

Answer 12

• Individuals gain and maintain control
• Individuals can remain in their own home when receiving care
• Inclusion in community
• Improved information and guidance
• Improved quality of life, self-esteem and socialisation

Question 13

What are the positive impacts of personalisation?

Answer 13

• Direct payment for care allows rapid access to services and means the individual can have support as and when they need it.
• Inclusion within communities means individuals do not have to go into a residential care home where they are separate from everyday life.
• Remaining in own home where there is familiarity and a sense of belonging adds quality of life.
• Access to information and guidance allows for better choices.
• New opportunities, such as employment, further and higher education, are open to individuals who needs services as they can pay for the necessary support they need to access these opportunities.

Question 14

What are the challenges of personalisation?

Answer 14

• Care is limited to the prescribed budget.
• Availability and access to some services may be restricted. Travel is difficult because of poor public transport. High-demand services may be provided only for individuals with the greatest needs. There could also be a lack of trained carers.
• Worry about spending the budget as all the money has to be accounted for. If an individual has opted for direct payments, the local authority will ask them for copies of bank statements, invoices and receipts to justify how their budget has been spent.

Question 15

What can co-production do?

Answer 15

• Help services do what the Care Act says they have to do.
• Help save money
• Make services better for people
• Help people work together better in their community
• Make services think about how they make people’s lives better and stop them having more problems
• Help services to work together more