Disability Sheffield and NHS Personal Health Budgets (NHS PHB) have worked together to make a short film to help people understand what personal health budgets are and how you might be able to start the process of getting one. Watch ‘Samantha’s story: an introduction to Personal Health Budgets’ here.  

Me My Family My Home is ambitious. It seeks to make significant improvements to the lives and support received by children, young people and their families, moving to a single ‘whole life, whole family’ approach.   Funded by the Department for Education, the project focused its energies on supporting six local authorities and their partners to develop new support packages for children and young people with complex needs and complicated home lives. This group included:…

‘We are all colleagues together in a very important mission. Ultimately our goal can be nothing less than total transformation of our culture. Only when the most vulnerable of us is valued and appreciated for his or her gifts will everyone be safe and supported to be a fulfilled person. Inclusion is in the journey, not in the goal. Each step of the journey is as important as the ultimate destination.’ Judith Snow    …

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…