The thrust of current Government policy is towards maximising independent living and self-directed support through personal budgets and direct payments to service users. This presents considerable opportunities, but blind and partially sighted people will miss out on these unless barriers to access can be overcome.
There are a number of outstanding issues that will need to be addressed if personal budgets are to work in the interest of blind and partially sighted people. These include:
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Adequacy: budgets provided need to be sufficient to meet the assessed individual's needs.
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Charging: the impact of charging on service users' disposable incomes can be severe.
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Choice: service users need to manage their own budgets.
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Information: Advice, advocacy and brokerage: people need to be aware of what services and benefits are available and how they can be accessed.
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Access: Blind and partially sighted people need to be assured that they will not simply be rationed out of the promised empowerment represented by personalisation.
In 2009 we organised a workshop with blind and partially sighted people to explore these issues in greater depth:
Download the Individual budgets in social care workshop report (Word, 318KB)