The benefits and limitations of personalisation as a strategy of reform

What is it about?

This article reviews the development of self-directed support and personalisation, particularly in the UK. It sets out its importance as a reform, but also its limitations. It examines the recent cuts in services that seem to target the very groups personalisation was supposed to benefits and examines what kinds of other strategies will be needed to defend the rights of disabled people and others.

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Why is it important?

The article is based on my 2011 Tizard lecture and followed shortly after the the UK Government 2010 spending review which revealed deep cuts to benefits and social care. As someone who had spent at this point 21 years working to develop personalisation in health and social care, it was an opportunity to address some of the obvious limitations this approach, which are often over-looked by its advocates.