PERSONALISATION offers Camphill communities the opportunity to think creatively about what they do, how support is delivered and the differences it makes to people's lives.
Now Camphill in England and Wales is developing a personalisation project to help communities have a deeper understanding of personalisation and develop the support they offer to people with learning disabilities to meet individual's needs and government and local authority targets.
Representatives of communities held two meetings in the autumn to initiate the personalisation project. As a result, Phil Gibson (pictured right) has been seconded from the Camphill Social Work Advisory Team to work full-time as the personalisation project manager.
"The important thing to realise," he says, "is that personalisation is not just about individual budgets. It is about transforming the way that support services are offered and provided. For Camphill communities it is about offering flexible and creative support designed around the expressed needs of the people we support.
"There is already a great deal of flexibility in what Camphill offers to meet people's different needs. The project will aim to develop this further so that those working in our communities are able to respond to people's needs and preferences."
Phil says that staff training and development will be one area of the project. Another will be helping communities to build open relationships with commissioners, local authority care managers and the wider community.
The government has set targets for local authorities so that by October 2010 all new and reviewed service users should be offered a personal budget. By April 2011, 30 per cent of all service users should be funded through a personal budget.
"We must ensure that people know about the opportunities available to individuals through the positive lifestyle choices that Camphill communities offer," adds Phil, "and provide the information that will be needed by new applicants and existing supported tenants to manage their budgets.
"The government sees personalisation as a way of re-directing support money to ‘good providers'. The Department of Health has stated that there is little future for those who do not offer personalised support.
"I believe that Camphill communities are very good providers and the diverse nature of the communities will allow Camphill to meet the support needs and preferences of a wide range of people."