Putting the personal into personal care

The terms "personalisation" and "personal budgets" are much bandied around these days. Here, Martyn Sibley, a user of personal assistants (PAs) talks about the reality of what it has meant to him

Direct Payments shifted the power and also the responsibility of my care to me and away from the authorities. Prior to leaving for university I was given an assessment which dictated the budget I would be given for my own care. Previously the Local Authority (LA) would have paid an agency to carry out the support. During my university life, the process was still relatively simple because they recruited, trained, paid and generally oversaw the care scheme for the disabled students.

It has been since university and living independently, as well as working full time, that I am fully responsible as an employer. I have had to learn the art of writing a job description, advertising the role, interviewing applicants, collecting references to safeguard myself and creating a watertight contract of employment. Furthermore I then have to train my new PAs, create a rota and fit in with their own demands. There are the financial matters of monthly pay, tax/NI contributions, keeping the account liquid (not overspending), liability insurance, monitoring forms to show the LA how I spend the money, and any other ad hoc matters.

Before Personalisation I had care from a different person each day who would still need some level of training for my needs. The times I would receive care were inflexible and I could totally forget about being spontaneous. With this responsibility comes freedom.

Freedom to have the right PAs for you, freedom to do things at the time you want them done, and freedom for those crazier moments you can drop everything and be spontaneous. For me this is being able to lie in on a Saturday morning, go to a football match and then stay out until 3am, after drinks and a club with my mates. More recently my outcomes focused assessment has provided support to begin swimming again. I hadn’t for ten years due to perceived barriers. I now attend a local leisure centre for free with my PA, there are hoists and changing beds meaning it is barrier free. I am definitely feeling the benefits physically and emotionally. Next is hopefully assistance with an adventure holiday abroad.

If both sides are able to capacity build themselves to be personalisation ready, the benefits will be reaped for all. Disabled people will gain skills which are transferable to the workplace, they can choose how to live their life and open new doors to leisure that were once closed. Meanwhile service providers should be creative in tweaking existing services and creating whole new services to give their customers exactly what they need, want and once dreamed about.