Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:04:20.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

six - Can personalisation work for older people?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2022

Catherine Needham
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Jon Glasby
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The debates and controversies surrounding the personalisation agenda that have already been identified in this text are clearly evident in the context of services for older people. The development of any policy can be understood as a battle of ideas in which there will be winners and losers (Colebatch, 2005). In this case, as Needham (2011b) has pointed out, the personalisation agenda has gained enormous popularity in the field of social care policy, having now become effectively ‘the only game in town’. However, the ambiguous nature of the concept effectively means that the battle of ideas is still continuing. On the one hand, personalisation is characterised as a revolution in social care, a wholesale cultural shift in the perceptions about how people who need support should be able to exercise control over how it is given. On the other, it is more prosaically seen in terms of the levels of implementation of personal budgets (PBs) and direct payments (DPs) to individual service users, which redistributes responsibility from the state to individuals. Since services for older people constitute more than half of social services expenditure (HSCIC, 2012), it is unsurprising that much attention is being paid to the implementation of personalisation in this sphere, although older service users appear to be less enthusiastic than others about PBs and DPs (Glendinning et al, 2008; Hatton and Waters, 2011). The pressure on councils to increase their uptake raises questions about whether older people are also under pressure to accept PBs or DPs, thus undermining the claims to increased choice and control that are made for them.

This chapter will examine the unfolding story of personalisation in the context of social care services for older people. Ageing is a crucially important issue at both macro- and micro-levels of service provision and the discussion will consider the impact of societal ageing on the development of policies as well as the advantages and disadvantages of personalisation for older service users. The main strands of contemporary critiques of personalisation all have a bearing on this discussion. In general terms, these critiques focus on the willingness and capability of local authorities and the professionals that work in them to implement personalisation policies in daily practice, particularly in the context of the current economic circumstances.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×