BJSW Advance Access originally published online on October 31, 2006
British Journal of Social Work 2008 38(1):91-116; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl339
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Case for a New ‘Case’ Management in Services for People with Learning Disabilities
Paul Cambridge is a Senior Lecturer in Learning Disability at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent at Canterbury. He has also worked as a researcher in local government and at the Personal Social Services Research Unit. His interests span care management, commissioning and de-institutionalisation and he has undertaken research on the long term outcomes and costs of community care and on de-institutionalisation in the European context. His wider research and publications cover the sexuality and sexual health of men with learning disabilities, intimate and personal care and gender, sexuality and caring roles and adult protection. He recently completed an evaluation of the specialist adult protection co-ordinator role and with other colleagues at Tizard, is looking at the adult protection referrals and related data on process and outcomes held by Kent and Medway social services departments.
Correspondence to Paul Cambridge, Senior Lecturer, Tizard Centre, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7LZ, UK. E-mail: P.Cambridge{at}kent.ac.uk
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Micro-organization is currently fragmented in services for people with learning disabilities. Care management, person-centred planning (PCP) and direct payments have developed through separate policy strands, with tasks and agency responsibilities blurred. A wide diversity of care management arrangements currently operate, with the relationship between care management, PCP and direct payments imprecisely defined. PCP and direct payments have also been variably implemented. This paper argues for a new ‘person-centred case management’, with these different devices better integrated and decision-making and action more person-centred. Drawing on practice experience from the original British case management experiments, the new ‘case’ management would be centred on the needs and wants of individuals, be conducted independently from assessment, operate outside the public sector and be able to access personal budgets. It would consequently have the capacity to further de-institutionalize services and support and transfer more control to people with learning disabilities.
Keywords: assessment, direct payments, person-centred planning, care management, case management