Community capital and the role of the state: an empowering approach to personalisation

Abstract

Personalisation was a key element in reforming the adult and social care system in England. Personal budgets are central to this reform, and enable recipients of social care to choose and commission their own services. This paper results from a case study in the West Midlands led by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) in the Soho/Victoria ward of Smethwick. The ‘Friends and Neighbours’ initiative, a community-run organisation, brings the personalisation and empowerment agendas together. One of the gaps in research concerns the crucial role of carers, which is fundamental to the personalisation agenda reaching its objectives. Sandwell took an asset-based, social capital approach to ‘Friends and Neighbours’, in which the challenge was that “personalisation has the potential to deliver services in new and different ways that are nearer to what service users and their carers want and need”. This report describes the case study which used a research methodology based on a process-focused strategy of evidence gathering. Finding are analysed in terms of these themes: the policy context, trust, capacity building, tension management, and relocation of power. It concludes that the role of the local authority, as a necessary broker, is indispensable in this process.