Critically appraisal of the Personalisation Policy in social work of Essay

Critically appraisal of the Personalisation Policy in social work of any local authority in the UK - Essay Example Personalisation of services for the disabled has also enabled service users to receive direct payments in lieu of services. Personalisation also involves independent living, whereby the person with disability is allowed to control their daily activities and the use of equipment. However, reports show that adults with ill mental health have not enjoyed the personalisation of services as much as their counterparts who have other forms of disability. England is one of the local governments within the UK that has had problems implementing the personalisation approach in delivering services to people with mental problems. According to Gardner (2011 pp. 62) a report in 2005 showed that majority of social service providers in England did not give direct payments to mentally ill people. Glasby & Littlechild (2009 pp. 59) attribute this occurrence to professional attitudes among the service providers. For example, taking up of individual budgets for people with mental problems becomes an issue because the professionals do not believe that these service users have the capacity to handle the finances. In order to counter this perception, service users are advised to make prior provisions incase of predictable mental health fluctuations in future. Glasby &Littlechild (2009) also concur with the reports that many people with ill mental health in England are locked out of personalised services. One of the primary reasons for this occurrence is that many users, care providers, and staff are ignorant about the existence of such services as direct payments. Many of these stakeholders do not have access to information regarding which types of personalised services are available for people with mental problems. According to Gould (2010 pp. 58) there is also the problem of determining the eligibility of a service user as well as differentiating between health care and social care