Health and social care services have been criticised in the past for being designed for the convenience of the service providers themselves, rather than for the people who need to use those services
The traditional service led approach has often meant that people have not received the right support for their circumstances or been able to shape the kind of help they need. Efforts have therefore been made in all UK countries to address these concerns but the strategies used are different. For example, in England and Scotland, the personalisation agenda has gained prominence. In Wales, there is an emphasis on ensuring equitable access to person centred services for all citizens.
Resources for social care practitioners
The 'Think Local, Act Personal' website is aimed at social care practitioners and is designed to help implementation of personalised care, promote good practice and deliver improved care outcomes for people. It contains a personalisation toolkit which includes a transformation framework, tools to help structure change programmes and learning from intensive projects on: Finance, support planning and brokerage, equal access, streamlined individual budget process, income streams and deployment options.
Personalisation, when it is applied to individuals, is very familiar to occupational therapists: the person/client has the best understanding of his/her situation and problems and is also the person who knows best how his or her needs can be met
In a personalised approach, people are encouraged to make their own decisions, but are also given the information and support they need in order to do this. The philosophy of occupational therapy means recognising people as individuals. Occupational therapists are skilled in finding and tailoring individual solutions for people in different health and care settings and therefore align to the values of personalisation (SCIE 2010). Occupational therapists recognise and understand that everyone's lifestyle is different and how each person chooses to live is up to them.
A glossary of useful terms relating to personalisation
Co-production
Co-production is a fairly recent term that is used as a new way of talking about direct participation and community involvement in social care services. It has also been called ‘co-creation’ or ‘parallel-production’ and can be seen as a way of building social capital. Co-production should mean more power and resources being shared with people so that they are empowered to co-produce their own solutions to the difficulties they are best placed to know about.
