Terminology

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.

Direct Payment

A means tested cash payment made in the place of regular social service provision to an individual who has been assessed as needing support. The money included only applies to social care.  In England, direct payments have been offered to service users since 2005.

Individual Budget

Sets out an overall budget for a range of services, not just from social care, from which the individual may choose to receive as cash or services or a mixture of both. They have been piloted and evaluated in 13 Local Authorities and currently include:

• local authority adult social care
• integrated community equipment services
• disabled facilities grants
• supporting people for housing-related support
• access to work
• Independent Living Fund

Personal Assistants

Personal Assistant is the term used for the carer directly employed by a disabled person through either a direct payment or other support budget.  A contract between the disabled person and the Personal Assistant will outline the tasks required to be undertaken.

Personal Budget

Originally the term personal budget only applied to social care funding but now it is often used interchangeably with individual budget. It is funding given to someone after they have been assessed to meet their needs.  This is a transparent allocation of money with the right to choose how this is managed and spent.

Personal Health Budget

The principles behind individual budgets are now being applied in healthcare in a series of pilot sites in England. Personal Health Budgets should ‘help people to get the services they need to achieve their health outcomes, by letting them take as much control over how money is spent on their care as is appropriate for them’ (Department of Health 2009).

Self-Directed Support

This term was used by ‘In Control’, a social enterprise, which pioneered the use of self-directed support and personal budgets as a way to reform the current social care system. Self directed support is a fundamental part of social care transformation.  Putting People First includes a commitment to make personal budgets the norm for people who are eligible for ongoing social care. This will mean that:

• assessment is led by the person and focuses on the outcomes that they and their family want to achieve
• the person knows the amount of money that is likely to be available to achieve these outcomes before they decide how to use the money
• there is advice and support available to help people plan support arrangements that will achieve the agreed outcomes, and to raise concerns about those arrangements should they not work well
• support arrangements make the most of natural support and mainstream services

Reference

DOH (2009) Personal Health Budgets; First Steps. London; DH Publications.