Assessing the reaction to the Coalition's 'personal budgets' announcement

The social care sector last week learned where a good portion of the £2bn budget allocated in Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review will be directed, after Care Minister Paul Burstow announced £400m of funding to go towards ‘carers’ breaks’, with everyone in England and Wales eligible for a personal budget that is designed to give hardworking carers valuable breathing space.

Together with the growing amount of people sourcing social or residential care services throughout the country are those carers who do not receive any help and find their lives burdened by the needs of their loved ones; it is these carers, often overlooked by the care system and seen as representing one of society’s unseen struggles, for whom this shift in funding is designed to help. Not only this but it is hoped personal budgets will have a massive impact upon the much bemoaned postcode lottery, as eligibility will no longer be based on where people live.

The announcement was welcomed and accompanied by an ADASS statement, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, who support a ‘radical realignment of the way resources are used across public services’. While a number of other professional organisations have issued responses that would also seem broadly in favour of this new development, if happening to express many other underlying concerns with the financing of the care sector at the same time. The Alzheimer’s Society, for example, stated that ‘It is… good to see that the vision recognises that reablement services can save money and also improve quality of life’, though leading charity Age UK did question whether direct cash payment might lead to ‘greater risks in terms of safeguarding of older people’.

‘Personal budgets’ are, in a way, an interesting sidestep towards ‘free personal care’, a policy that was rejected by a Royal Commission in 1999 and bringing to an end the momentum of the Labour Government of the time in achieving their own solution to the issue. Despite this rejection, the policy was then adopted in a spirit of defiance by the SNP when they took devolved power in Holyrood, a decision that resulted in a policy now seen by many as a ‘flagship’ and initially inviting praise for audacious thinking, that has since dissipated under the weight of an ageing population and SNP leader Alex Salmond now seems to be holding onto the policy by his fingertips – soon expected to disappear completely. On the other hand perhaps this comparatively half measure is the best alternative during this time of cuts to public sector financing when a depth of possible solutions are not on the table.

The Care Minister’s announcement was made very much in the spirit of the Conservative’s ‘Big Society’ idea, which has turned out to be more than just an election sound bite, although whether voters are any less confused by its ideals is still a matter for debate. Explaining the Big Society vision behind the move, Paul Burstow said that ‘Personal Budgets can make an incredible difference to people’s lives. They give people choice, control and independence’, though the principle of supporting carers in taking more breaks has its origins in the Liberal Democrat manifesto. Providing there are no similar freedoms of interpretation over the effectiveness of this new policy, then perhaps the care sector has nothing to lose in getting behind it.