Putting People First - reforming Social Care

Central and local government have signed a ground-breaking agreement to reform social care and support independent living.

The concordat Putting People First was signed on 10 December 2007, bringing together Central Government, Local Government, the professional leadership of adult Social Care and the NHS in a joint commitment to radically transform care services for the next three years.

At the launch, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced an extra £520 million of ring fenced funding to transform the current social care over system over the next three years.

The extra £520 million will be allocated to councils as a Social Care Reform grant. Almost half the funding comes from the NHS, recognising the impact social care can have on improving people's health and well-being.

For more information, please visit the Department of Health Social Care Reform website.

Charging Guidance for Individual Budget pilot sites

This document contains practice guidance for IB pilot sites on contribution (charging) systems and Individual Budgets. Download it here or from our resource library.

New Reports in October 2007

Several reports have been added to the Library

Three reports cover the development of the self-directed support (SDS) network and progress of SDS in six IB sites and four In Control sites.

Here to Stay? Self-directed support: Aspiration & Implementation

Evaluation of the self-directed support network: a review of progress so far

Evaluation of the self-directed support network: an overview of key messages

A seperate report examines the value and scope of IBs, and in particular what funding streams might be integrated.

Individual Budgets Integration.

The last is a report from a recent workshop exploring the implications for service providers of the wide-scale use of IBs to underpin SDS Implications of Individual Budgets for service providers.

Mental Capacity Act 2005

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 for England and Wales comes into force this year. It will empower and protect people who may not be able to make decisions for themselves including people with dementia, learning disabilities and mental health problems.

Because it covers major decisions about someone's property, healthcare treatment and other everyday decisions about personal care, it will be key to the work being done in the Individual Budget Pilot Programme.

You can view a summary of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 here or download a Department of Health presentation about it here.


Individual Budgets and Older People

A report was recently commissioned to gather some of the learning from pilot sites about giving individual budgets to older people. The resulting paper Older People Services and Individual Budgets by Angela Nicholls was released in May 2007.

Some of the key findings include:

• The process of undertaking the self assessment and discussing the option of an Individual Budget can make older people feel they matter from the start.
  
• Having a time limited discharge package, reablement service or intermediate care makes it easier to introduce Individual Budgets at the point which longer term support plans are being made.
  
• Many older people adopted a mix and match approach, combining conventionally commissioned care services with a small direct payment to purchase additional services or equipment.

Copyright CSIP 2006