BJSW Advance Access published online on March 26, 2008
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn028
Safeguarding and System Change: Early Perceptions of the Implications for Adult Protection Services of the English Individual Budgets Pilots—A Qualitative Study
Jill Manthorpe is Professor of Social Work and Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London. Her main interests lie in older people's services, including those for people with dementia and in safeguarding, and she is leader of a Department of Health funded research programme on the social care workforce.
Martin Stevens is a Research Fellow, at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London and is a member of the IBSEN evaluation team.
Joan Rapaport is a Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London. She is a former social worker and co-ordinates the Social Work History Network.
Jess Harris is a Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London.
Sally Jacobs is a Research Associate at PSSRU and is a member of the IBSEN evaluation team.
David Challis is Professor of Community Care Research and Director of the PSSRU at the University of Manchester. He has worked in social services in Lancashire and Salford within older people's and mental health services.
Ann Netten is Director of the Kent branch of PSSRU and is a member of the IBSEN evaluation team.
Martin Knapp is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, Professor of Health Economics at King's College London (Institute of Psychiatry) and a member of the IBSEN evaluation team.
Mark Wilberforce is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and research coordinator for the IBSEN project.
Caroline Glendinning is Professor of Social Policy and Assistant Director, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York where she leads a Department of Health funded programme of research on Choice and Change in Social Care.
Correspondence to Professor Jill Manthorpe, Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London, Strand, London WC2B 4LL, UK. Email: jill.Manthorpe{at}kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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Cash for care or consumer-directed services are increasing in scope and size in Europe and North America. The English Department of Health initiated a pilot form of personalised support for adults (Individual Budgets) in 13 local authorities that aimed to extend opportunities for users of social care services to determine their own priorities and preferences in the expectation that this will enhance their well-being. This article reports on and discusses interviews undertaken with adult protection leads in the 13 Individual Budgets sites about the linkages to their work, their perceptions of the launch of the pilots and the policy s fit with safeguarding and risk agendas. The interviews were undertaken as part of the national evaluation of the pilots, which aims to evaluate outcomes and identify the contexts and mechanisms of those outcomes. Findings of this part of the study were that the adult protection leads were not central to the early implementation of Individual Budgets and that some of their concerns about the risk of financial abuse were grounded in the extent of this problem among current service users. The implications of their perceptions for the roll out of Individual Budgets are debated in this article with a focus on risk and the policy congruence between potentially competing agendas of choice and control and of protection and harm reduction.
Keywords: adult protection, personalisation, social care, individual budgets, risk