John Waters, In Control’s lead for research and evaluation and co-author of POET, responded to recent criticism of personal budgets in the Guardian.   ‘Personal budgets are a simple but powerful innovation that over the past decade have quietly revolutionised the way the social care system in England is organised. According to Disability Rights UK, a national organisation of disabled people, they are “the route to achieving independent living based on the social model of disability”.’   Read the…

In Control members have been busy using the Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET) to collect the views and experiences of people who need support and those close to them. This has included 1,879 parents/carers of children and young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), 2,989 practitioners working with children and young people with EHCPs, 906 children and young people who have EHCPs themselves, as well as 2,254 adults who have a personal budget…

In Control has published its latest report on the pilot of the Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET) for children and young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). The development of the tool has been funded by the DfE with 70 local areas taking part in the final year of the pilot.   The POET is unique in capturing the views of practitioners, parents and young people on the process of getting an Education…

There seems to be universal agreement that we are facing an urgent crisis in long-term health and social care. In Control and our allies have positively influenced national policy and legislation, but there is much work to be done to close the “rhetoric-reality gap” in the context of the severe financial pressures being faced by statutory bodies. Failure to deliver the authentic self-direction promised by policy in social care, health and education is severely impacting…

This is a new resource sponsored by Alternative Futures Group and developed by In Control working with Helen Sanderson Associates. The e-book aims to help those who want to develop much more person centred community based supports for people with dementia. We have researched both promising developments for people with dementia and also innovations developed in other fields which we believe could be adapted to include people with dementia. None of these approaches are currently…

In April 2015 the introduction of the Care Act in England radically changed the way in which care and support services are organised. The act places local authorities under a very powerful obligation. They are charged not just with having regard for, but with actually ‘promoting’ an individual’s wellbeing. The act also covers many of the obligations the government has signed up to under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  In…

Partners in Policymaking is renowned and internationally respected. Lynne Elwell, who brought the course to the UK in 1996, has continued to develop programmes for over 20 years. This year brought a new growth in the Partners network with a course specifically designed for people who are living with Dementia and their families. Lynne Elwell and Julie Stansfield led the new programme, ‘Shifting the Pattern’, in Hartlepool. ‘Shifting the Pattern’ aimed to equip people who…

I was invited, along with Partners in Policymaking graduates, to attend a reception at the Scottish Parliament on 25th April 2017. The room was full of invited ministers and members of the Scottish parliament, and the event was sponsored by Fulton MacGregor MSP.     I began the presentation with a brief history of how Partners in Policymaking came about, how it has developed over 21 years and Scotland’s part in this. I was followed…