Social Care for Free Citizens Dave Clements - Manifesto Club

The ‘personalisation’ of social care is a good example of how today’s
public services can liberate people rather than simply control them.
One study estimates that ‘within the next five years, 1.5 million people
could be using personal budgets to commission and manage their own
support.’ [1] Promoting people’s independence, choice and control
(as the rhetoric goes) points the way forwards towards establishing
a more fair and just social care system. It ultimately shows how a new
public sector ethos can aid the creation of a society of free citizens.
It seems the public service revolution is already underway.
The government is dedicated to developing a personalised welfare
state. The Conservatives similarly want to allow people to spend the
money allocated for their care as they see fit, and ‘give some of our
most deprived citizens the opportunity to live independent and fulfilling
lives.’ [2]
Indeed, it is partly the endorsement of conservative critics that
lends weight to the suspicion that ‘personalisation’ is a slippery term
used to disguise public services cuts and get tough on benefit claimants.
Yet, despite this not entirely unreasonable nervousness, I have
found myself warming to the idea.
This Thinkpiece constitutes an argument for a social care policy
that truly supports people’s autonomy. We should challenge the fretful
desire to nudge people into making the ‘right’ choices and impede
people from truly taking control of their lives, and support a genuine
personalisation of social services.
A truly active society
There is a sympathy between personalised social care and a personalised
welfare system: each can help people play a more active role in
society. Indeed, the idea of personalisation is most developed in the
field of social care for adults, but has much wider implications for the
delivery of a variety of public services.
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