Why Somerset County Council want more people to take charge of their personal budgets

Somerset County Council are encouraging more adults with social care needs to be assessed for a personal budget. The council has been reported as having the lowest take-up of all local authorities with one in three adults in adult social care in receipt of the payments. While they have increased the figure this year they are still expected to have 70% of people with social care needs assessed. The council have agreed to use the Personal Budgets Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET) to find out the views of people and families using personal budgets to help make the necessary improvements.

Sally Percival, Chair of TLAP's National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) from Cumbria was interviewed on BBC Radio Somerset along with Pam Richards who was the South West Coordinator when the government first introduced the scheme in 2007.

Sally described how two members of her family benefitted from personal budgets. In the case of her mother who has complex health needs and dementia, she says personal budgets were "life transforming" giving her the choice to leave her care home where she was unhappy and move home. The advantage of this arrangement has meant that her care is carefully tailored to her needs and lifestyle, and she is said to be thriving as a result.

Listen to the interview- available via iplayer. The radio programme starts at 1.36.31 and lasts approximately seven minutes.