Direct Payments and Personal Budgets: Putting Personalisation into Practice, 3rd edn, J. Glasby and R. Littlechild

Extract

This welcomed third edition provides a comprehensive and evaluative overview of academic studies on Direct Payments across Europe and UK which has now become a mainstream central feature of social care and person-centred practice enshrined in the principles of the 2014 Care Act.

Fundamentally, personalisation aims to both empower people to have more genuine choice and control of their own lives—whilst also reconnecting practitioners to the value-base of the profession. As acknowledged by the authors, this edition provides a more ‘cautious’ response to personalisation policy, now located within an era of austerity, when compared to the early ‘optimism’ of the second edition. However, this revised and fully updated edition goes some way in promoting the key concepts and right value-base required for the job social work practitioners occupy.

Each chapter is supplemented with clear accessible figures, concise research summaries, up-to-date data tables, reflective exercises and further recommended reading and resources, providing a useful key reference for educators, social policy researchers and practitioners alike.