Individual Budgets Evaluation

Evaluation is a very important part of this work. Everyone wants to know what difference IBs are making and whether they really do allow a person's support to be organised better and more quickly.

Case Studies

Several case studies have been produced around the evaluations of IBs.

'Individual Budgets and Direct Payments for Independent Living' was commissioned and published by the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA). This case study describes Coventry City Council's work in piloting individual budgets for social care. To read the report click on the link, or visit IDeA at www.idea.gov.uk to read this and other reports on their Partnership and Places Library.

A further study by SQW Consulting, commissioned and published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), is a scoping study on Individual Budgets for Families with Disabled Children and examines the ways of delivering IBs to children, the Coventry case study forms part of the supplementary case study report. There are three publications written from the study, a Scoping Study Main Report (DCSF-RR057), a Literature Review Report (DCSF-RW067) and a Final Case Study Report (DCSF-RW066). To read the reports click on the links or visit DCSF at www.dcsf.gov.uk .

The Social Care System

From Coventry's experiences in IBs we have written an article which is being published in the 'Journal of Integrated Care' called 'The Social Care System: Beyond Repair or Missing Vital Parts?'

ABSTRACT

Putting People First and the Social Care Reform Grant have been presented as ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunities to get the ‘broken’ social care system fit for purpose. There is a risk that the guidance attached to the reform grant will force councils to focus on the transformation of processes and systems, rather than on what really matters, the transformation of the lives of disabled people. Like in Control, Putting People First locates the problem in ‘resource allocation’ and proposes that councils develop new systems to improve this. An alternative view is that the transformation of the lives of disabled people can be delivered by improvements in the components of the current system. How these improvements can be funded is also considered.

To buy the article or subscribe to the Journal go to www.pavpub.com

National Evaluation

National evaluation research was conducted by five universities under the name of IBSEN (the Individual Budgets Evaluation Network). The National Evaluation Report can be found on the IBSEN website. The report includes data from Coventry but does not identify Coventry separately. The national evaluation will help us learn lessons from the project as a whole.

Local Evaluation

Why have a local evaluation?

In Coventry, we were also keen to learn about the successes and challenges of our outcomes-focused approach. Are we enabling people to become more independent and to achieve the things that are important to them?

What we did

Coventry City Council commissioned a research team from Coventry University and an exciting partnership developed between the two agencies. This led to two events being held in Coventry to share our findings.

Event for service users

The first was a service user-led event held on 14th December 2007 at Coventry University. People had used a wide range of methods to tell their stories – artwork, photos, video diaries, powerpoint presentations, an internet blog and... a giant jigsaw (see picture left)!

Service users enjoyed discussing their experiences and showing their work to carers, social workers, care professionals and Coventry University students studying social care.

Event for practitioners

The second was a professionally-focused event, attended by people from across the country who had expressed interest in Coventry's approach to Individual Budgets, this was held on 10th March 2008 at the prestigious Belgrade Theatre in the centre of Coventry. The programme included a presentation by Guy Daly (Associate Dean, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University), and a lively question and answer session chaired by David Brindle (Public Services Editor of the Guardian newspaper).

'Our Stories' booklet

A booklet produced by the Coventry team called 'Our Stories' (PDF), was launched at the event. This follows the journey through the Individual Budget Pilot, has stories from local service users about the difference having an IB has made to their lives, and much of the artwork and photos of the local evaluation.

Go to the following link to see Simon Steven's video about his Individual Budgets www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0tUso7uT-U

If you would like a hard copy of the booklet please contact us using the details below or click on the link 'Our Stories' to download a PDF version.

Coventry University's evaluation report

Coventry University produced an independent report of the evaluation, you can view this document by clicking the link. This provides some useful pointers for the way forward for the new Personal Budgets and 'Transforming Social Care' requirements published by the Government in January 2008.

Our findings and that of Coventry University will help shape government policy on the personalisation of services and Personal Budgets.