Personal Budgets - Guardian blog

View an excerpt of the Guardian Social Care Network blog 'Making sure personal budgets work for everyone across health and social care', written by TLAP Director Sam Bennett.

It has been difficult to avoid the drive towards personal budgets for care and support over the last five years. Not least because since 2008 there have been targets councils have worked towards - most recently the 70% target for 2013. This milestone passed at the end of March, but it will be several months before we know the full picture.

I expect the numbers to be good, though there remains some debate about the most useful measure to reflect performance. Targets are double-edged swords: they can lead to unintended consequences and behaviours that "feed the beast" rather than actually changing things for the better. But on balance, I'm pleased we had these particular targets.