Interview
with Penny Gray, Personalisation Programme Manager for Gateshead Council.
What is personalisation?
Personalisation was introduced in the government Concordat ‘Putting People First’ in 2007. The vision in Putting People First is that:
‘Over time, people who use social care services and their
families will increasingly shape and
commission their own services. Personal budgets will ensure people receiving public funding
use available resources to choose their own support services’
What does it mean for Gateshead?
We held a workshop day in March 2009 with a range of people to discuss how this would look for us in Gateshead. This helped us to understand what we want in Gateshead. The loud message was ‘choice and control starts here!’
Personal budgets and self directed support will put the person in control and able to say what they want to meet their need.
It will mean change for us all as we all begin to think differently about how we get the care and support that we need, and how we continue to support people who need more help. I am confident that we can achieve real change if we all work together.
How will this be delivered in Gateshead?
This is a large programme of activity involving the council, voluntary organisations and providers and other people to help us. It will take us until 2012 until everything is in place.
The Personalisation Programme in Gateshead will help co-ordinate and facilitate this change through a range of projects and organisations. The personalisation partnership represents a wide range of people and organisations and is overseeing how we deliver this in Gateshead.
How is this different to Individual Budgets?
Individual budgets helped to try out some of the ideas in personalisation through 13 national pilots. Gateshead was one of the pilot sites.
Individual budgets tried a new way to offer people the opportunity to manage their budget and services. This gave people more choice about how they could use this to achieve the things they wanted and meet their needs.
Personalisation aims to bring this choice and control for everyone who is eligible for social care support. This is called self directed support. It doesn’t mean that everyone will have to manage their own budget or services. It does mean people can have more choice and control about how that money is used to meet their eligible needs. We aim for this to be in place for everyone by 2012.
So can I still get an Individual Budget in Gateshead?
Yes. If, following an assessment from your social worker or assessment worker, you are eligible for social services support you can ask them about options for self directed support. There may be some changes over the next few months as we review our systems to simplify and improve them to prepare for personalisation. We all need to learn together as we move from the individual budget pilot, to personalisation.
How can I get more information?
For the Gateshead Personalisation Programme contact:
Penny Gray: Programme Manager – pennygray@gateshead.gov.uk tel 0191 433 2480
Paul Gertig: Project Manager – paulgertig@gateshead.gov.uk tel 0191 433 2143
Claire Bainbridge: Operational Support Assistant – clairebainbridge@gateshead.gov.uk tel: 0191 433 2377
For more information on Putting People First and Self Directed support:
To ask for a referral for adult social care contact: Adult Social Care Direct on 433 7033 or look on Gateshead Council Website on www.gateshead.gov.uk
Below is a picture of the Gateshead Personalisation Team:
left – Penny Gray, Programme Manager, centre – Paul Gertig, Project Manager,
right – Claire Bainbridge, Operational Support Assistant.