Personalisation in Glasgow - What You Need to Know

Glasgow City Council Social Work Services Department (which provides funding for support for most people with learning disability in Glasgow) has decided to change the way it provides this funding.  The new system will be based on a system of Self Directed Support (SDS), sometime known as 'Personalisation'.  The Council wants to bring this change in very quickly, ideally before the end of March 2011.  This change will have a profound effect on many people with learning disabilities and their carers.

In the SDS system, each service user has an individual budget allocated to them which they use to ‘buy’ a package of support they need.  This will cover things like supported living, day services, transport, respite care, or any other support funded by the Council.  Service users and their carers will have quite a lot of freedom about what kind of support they choose, and on who they choose to buy it from.  Some people choose to hold their budget themselves and pay for their support directly.  In other cases, the Council will continue to hold the money, but the person can still have choice over what they do with their budget.

For many people, SDS will be a good thing.  They may get more choice about the support they get, and on how they wish to spend their money.  They may be able to spend this money better than the Council can.

However, there are a number of potential problems, and many carers and service users are worried about these. The main problem is that Glasgow City Council, like many other local authorities in Scotland, has much less money to spend on support than they used to have, and have said they will be cutting many people’s support budgets.

Our information leaflet on this process 'Self Directed Support in Glasgow - What You Need to Know' gives more information.  There's also an easy-read summary.