Putting People at the Heart of Care

Frantic. That's what it's been like. Frantic. In a job like the one I do for WRVS (Media and Public Affairs) the General Election is somewhat akin to the football World Cup in terms of all-bets-are-off madness, tension, excitement, TV gawked at, radio earwigged too, newspapers poured over,websites scanned, tweets and blogs and every-online-thing else sucked up, junk food guzzled and tea made (I'm not a coffee drinker, that really would send me over the edge). There are those that would find this level of interest in politics rather sad. In fact, I'm one of them but I have learnt to live with myself. And, for the avoidance of doubt, I am just as excited about the real World Cup 2010 that will take place in South Africa in June.

And its far from over. The now traditional 'congratulating of the new Ministers' which charities tend to do these days (i.e. a bunch of letters, usually suggesting a meeting that vaguely resembles some sort of date, to talk about how they can work with Government for the benefit of the people the charity supports) takes up some time. Then there's the policy detail itself. Ordinarily, the analysis of party manifestos that people like me and my colleagues do pre-election would serve as the basis for understanding what the new Government will get up too but in the uncharted choppy waters in which we are now swimming, that analysis only blows up the life raft so much. The tiny little eight pager that Dave and Nick put out last week was but a sliver of the forthcoming doorstopper that will arrive next week. The official coalition document will get down to much more detail about the full range of policies (although not to the level they will eventually need to be worked out to). Only then will the true picture of Britian's future will emerge. Although I should point out that 90% of the policies this tome will contain are essentially for England and to a lesser extent Wales. It seems to me that few people in England really understand just how much policy is devolved to the Scottish Parliament (no disrespect intended; I'm English born and bred, the son of a Scottish faither and an English mither but I now live and work in Edinburgh). From a WRVS point of view the two biggies are care and volunteering. Both devolved. And in the case of care, the Scottish Government is tanking ahead with proposals for a Self-Directed Support (SDS) Strategy and a Bill, in response to which WRVS has offered some comment, which you can read here. SDS is similar to Individual Budgeting and Direct Payments are a part of it. It advances the 'personalisation' agenda in Scotland, which is a big feature of the English care landscape and looks as if it will only grow in importance across the UK. That's certainly what the manifestos were suggesting in all their various UK, Scottish and Welsh editions - that was an innovation that quadrupled my bedtime reading for a week or so!

Basically SDS means handing control of care to the person who gets that care to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how that person wants to play it. It means really putting them at the heart of it. If they want to, they can decide what they need and who provides it and they control the budget, which gets given to them, usually by the local authority. It's the Scottish Government's hope that SDS will be the main way care is delivered in future and that almost certainly means a pretty radical shift away from monolithic care services provided by the state or by large private or third sector providers, to a greater variety of smaller more tailored services. It's more or less a market model and WRVS's interest lies in providing the kind of great, volunteer delivered services that, while not exactly 'care' services in the formal sense, can complement such a system and make sure older and disabled people can continue to live independently in their own communities, fully plugged into the life of those communities, rather than being isolated, lonely and stuck for a friendly ear or someone to help them get out and about. So, if you're interested have a read. And hang on for some more General Election related blogging coming here soon! Promise!