Peer brokers help other care-users manage their own services

Sinéad Brophy, chief executive of My Support Broker writing for the Guardian professional website:

" The personalisation agenda in social care has always been assumed good by the current government, but it can only be good if a balance is found to avoid social isolation. Equally, the move to give more people who receive social care services a personal health budget can only be good if those people know where the best services are to be found, and without adding to the cost.

While social care received a relative boost in the spending review back in June, but we should not forget that the budget has been cut 20% since 2010. On top of this, critics have called out the government for proposing an unreasonably high bar for eligibility, which runs the risk of cutting people in need out of the system.

One proven method to address all of these problems in social care, and find that right balance, is the peer-support model. This way of working saves money without selling short on efficiency and quality. People managing long-term conditions, and those who support them, are trained and accredited to help others to plan, find and manage their own care and support.

As chief executive of social enterprise MySupportBroker (MSB), I have seen councils across the country working with our peer-broker model already making savings, while improving the care services that people receive...

Read the full article on the Guardian Professional website