On track for personalisation

Councils in England are on track to achieve the government target of personal budgets for all service users by 2013, according to a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).

Ninety seven percent of councils questioned say they are on target, with 40%  revealing they already have 60% of users on personal budgets. Three authorities are on course to reach the 100% mark by the end of 2011-12.

The target was set last year in government’s Vision for adult social care. 

ADASS concludes councils are making good progress towards universal budgets, helped by significant promotion and communication of direct payments, as well as restructuring of services, identification of new suppliers, and staff training and development.

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Conference round up

A summary of key speeches, activities and views expressed at this year’s NCAS conference can be found on the blog section of the conference website.

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Call to sign up to new personalisation indicators

Councils and other social care providers have been urged to sign up to
Making It Real, a new set of indicators for implementing personalisation, and to publish details of their progress against them. 

The social care sector coalition, Think Local Act Personal, has drawn up the indicators in consultation with users and carers, to define what successful personalisation looks like.

The indicators include the government target of all service users receiving ongoing council funded support transferred to personal budgets by 2013.

Although not compulsory, ADASS will encourage members to use the indicators and include performance results in local council reports due to be published from this year.

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Improving intelligence on social worker supply and demand

A model for monitoring the supply and demand of social workers in England has been unveiled by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI).

Revealed at the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2011, the newly developed model will be made available to trial sites for testing.

The system will gather workforce data to help forecast the numbers of social workers needed in the future. 

It will work by taking actual numbers of social workers at a local level, and estimated time spent per case, plus categorising social workers according to their level of experience, and the cases according to their complexity to produce a forecast.

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Cash finds its way to prevention and reablement

The bulk of £648m transferred from the NHS to local authorities has been spent on services designed to cut hospital admissions.

Speaking at the 2011 National Children and Adult Services Conference, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told delegates, "there was scepticism the money wouldn’t find its way, but the evidence we’ve got so far shows those fears have not been realised”. £128m has gone into developing early intervention and prevention measures, and £50m on reablement. A further £115m has been allocated to help councils avoid increasing local eligibility criteria used to decide who should receive care services.

The money, announced in last year’s comprehensive spending review, will be moved from the NHS to councils every year until 2014-15. 

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Care Minister says turn up the heat

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow has urged councils to turn up the heat on personalisation and increase the numbers of people in receipt of direct payments. 

Speaking at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference, Mr Burstow said “there are still too many people who could benefit from personal budgets or direct payments and are missing out”. He called for a spotlight to be shone on councils performing badly on personalisation.

The minister also emphasised the need to focus on investing in prevention as a key area of work, particularly in the light of money saved by some councils from tightening the eligibility criteria used to qualify for care services. 

Referring to reform of the social care system, the minister acknowledged change is not just about resources, but also about a drive to increase quality and standards.  The White Paper on the future funding of social care is due to be published in April 2012.

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ADASS expresses reform expectations

Members of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Service have identified three outcomes that citizens should experience as part of reforms to the social care system.
President of the association, Peter Hay, described the outcomes to delegates at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference as: 

• an understandable system
• freedom from fears about affordability  
• peace of mind when it comes to dignity and safety

Mr Hay warned purely sector led reforms will be unsustainable if they are not backed up by law and viable funding.

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