21 November 2008
By Vivienne Russell
Personal budgets will become a mainstream feature of older people's care over the next few years, according to care services minister Phil Hope.
Addressing a Local Government Information Unit conference on November 19, Hope strongly refuted suggestions from the floor that he had distanced himself from his predecessor Ivan Lewis's 'evangelical' enthusiasm for individual budgets.
'The policy hasn't shifted,' Hope said. 'We are pursuing individual budgets and personal budgets, and within them direct payments.'
Department of Health-commissioned research, published in October, suggested that elderly people find personal budgets more difficult to use than other social care service users, such as people with mental health problems and younger, disabled adults.
But Hope insisted that changes to the system were already yielding benefits, with older people reporting improved wellbeing and optimism about their lives.
He told the conference: 'I expect personal budgets to become the norm over the next two or three years. Research is showing that when it's done properly, older people get real benefits.'
He added that it was fundamental that care services should be tailored to the needs and wishes of individuals.
Stephen O'Brien, Hope's Tory shadow, said he supported the move towards personalisation and choice. He added, however, that reform was needed to reduce bureaucracy so that those exercising personal budgets 'have the burden of being an employer taken off their shoulders'.
PFnov2008
