Action for Children Personalised Services

Action for Children – Personalisation Research

Call for Evidence

Personalisation is set to become one of the most critical drivers that will reshape children and
young people’s services in the future. The previous Government, and the new Coalition
Government, want to increase the level of personalisation of services for children and young
people, including through the extension of personalised budgets to disabled children, carers
and those with a long term health condition.
Personalisation is about providing service users, their carers and families’ greater choice,
flexibility and control over the services they receive. It relates to a wide range of
developments in service delivery including personal budgets (such as direct payments or an
Individual Service Fund), personalised care planning, shared decision making, co-production
and personalising universal and targeted services.
Action for Children is seeking to explore how it can support the move towards
personalisation, particularly in relation to its services for disabled children, young people and
their families.
It is interested in finding out about how commissioners and providers are developing more
personalised services and what trends and developments in service development it needs to
consider to ensure it continues to provide high quality personalised services in the future.
A UK-wide call for evidence
Action for Children would like to hear from organisations involved in the development and
delivery of personalised services. It would like to learn from you about good or promising
practice that supports the creation of high quality personalised services for disabled children
and young people. This is the purpose of the call for evidence.
Action for Children believes in building better services for all disabled children and young
people, regardless of who provides this. Thus, it will seek to make available a top line
summary of our findings available to all those who responded to the call for evidence.
We are interesting in hearing from you about:
• What are the main trends in policy and commissioning that are likely to lead to the
development of personalised services?
• What are the main barriers that exist to creating more personalised services?
• What services are likely to be in greatest demand for those seeking more personalised
services?
• What examples of good or promising practice are you aware of in the development of
personalised services?

Template for submissions of self-reported promising practice

UK-wide call for practice
Thank you for filling in this form to submit an example of good and/or promising practice that
supports the creation of personalised services for disabled children and young people.

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Please use this form to fill in your responses to the headings and questions which are there
to guide you. You can type in the grey boxes and they will expand to contain your text.
If you do not have time to complete the form, please send us documents relating to your
good practice, which we will review.
Use a new template for each example you are submitting and please submit your examples
by the end of April 2011.
If you have any problems or questions filling in this form please telephone Ayesha at OPM on
0207 239 7876.
Thank you for your time - together we can improve outcomes for disabled children and
young people.

Background

What are the main changes to policy or commissioning approaches which are leading to a
more personalised approach to service delivery for disabled children and young
people?

     

What services are likely to be in the greatest demand for both children, young people and
families and commissioners in the coming years?

     

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What are the main barriers to providing a personalised service?

     

Personal Budgets

What good examples of personal budgets are there for children and young people who are
experiencing homelessness, leaving care, or are in young carers roles?

And what impact does holding a Personal Budget have for people with learning disabilities or
mental health conditions in their role as parents?

Please could you describe these in the box below or in the subsequent sections on good and
emerging practice.

     

Examples of good or promising practice

What is the name or title of your example of personalisation? Please be as descriptive as

possible

     

What was the role of the commissioner and of the provider in taking forward this practice?

     

Who was the practice for (e.g. age group, or type of impairment)? What was the size or scale
of the practice involved?

     

4. What did disabled children and young people who use services and parents/carers say
about the intended practice?

     

5. Did other key stakeholders express views on the intended practice?

     

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Intended outcomes

6. What specific improvements and outcomes were intended for disabled children and young
people who use services and parents/carers?

     

7. How did you (or do you intend to) identify and measure these outcomes?

     

Actions taken

8. What actions were taken to put the idea into practice?

     

9. What information do you have about what disabled children and young people who use
services and parents/carers thought about this practice?

     

10. Do you have any information about what other key stakeholders thought about this
practice?

     

What actually happened?

11. Please briefly describe the improvements and outcomes achieved. What was the size, or
scale of the improvements or outcomes achieved? Was there anything that was less
successful?

     

12. What outcomes were noticed by disabled children and young people who use services
and parents/carers?

     

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Advice for others

14. Do you think this practice is sustainable and why?

     

15. Why and how could this practice by taken up by others? If you know of any take-up or
adaptation of your practice, please note it here.

     

18. Please describe what resources were used to deliver this practice (include staff time and
overheads)

     

19. Please write in your full name, job title, email and telephone number
     

Once you have filled in the form please save it with a new name and email it to Ayesha
Janjua on ajanjua@opm.co.uk or, if you prefer, post a hard copy to Ayesha at OPM, 252b
Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8XG

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