Partnership and Personalisation in Personal Care: Conflicts and Compromises

Background: Personalisation in social care services has become a feature of the delivery of long-term care for disabled people in many developed welfare states. Aim: Scotland has used the devolution of health and social care powers to develop a personalisation scheme (known as ‘Self-directed Support’). The authors apply a theoretical and empirical framework to understand the experience of contemporary disabled users of personalised services. Methods: The authors use a Scottish data set of six focus groups and a survey of 126 disabled people and family carers. Results: The data showed that flexible funding and the ability to provide services that cross agency boundaries were instrumental in moving towards equitable outcomes. Conclusions: Although there are clear policy and practice barriers to inter-agency working in personalised care services, the evidence suggests that it is worth investing in overcoming these barriers for disabled people and family carers.