What is Personalisation and Self Directed Support?

The way that people are supported with their social care needs is changing; this includes mental health social care needs. The new system is known as Self Directed Support (SDS). Self-directed support is about people being in control of the support they need to live the life they choose. SDS puts the service user at the centre of their own care. You may have heard it being referred to as ‘personalisation’ or ‘personal budgets’. There are different ways to describe it, but whatever name is given to it – it’s about giving people real power and control over their lives.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced Personalisation: A Rough Guide which gives a lot more information about Personalisation and Self Directed Support and is available for download when you click here.

Kent and Medway have commissioned Signpost UK to develop peer support brokerage to support people through personalisation. To find out more about this click here.

To find out more about personalisation and self directed support click on the relevant links below:

1. Personal Budgets and How do I get my Needs Assessed? In this section are some examples of how people have used personal budgets and how you get assessed to see if you are eligible for a personal budget. For more information click here.

2. Your Care / Support Plan. Ways to develop your support plan to achieve your social care outcomes, how to plan for your support and how to get the support plan agreed. Click here for more information.

3. Personal Budgets and Finances. This area includes ways to receive your personal budget, how this is monitored, paying towards your social care, and the personal budget in relation your benefits. For more information click here.

4. Who can help you with personalisation? For more information click here.

To access a video of how direct payments have helped Julia, who has bipolar disorder, click here (this will open in a new window).

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