„The World is my Lobster‟
Joe’s life with an Individual Budget
JOE POWELL &
BOB RHODES
www.livesthroughfriends.org
„Your life is not open to
negotiation‟
Introduction and why I needed a care
service
Progress I made in my care service
Problems I faced in a care service
Moving in with another service user
Staff encouragement
Independent Advocacy
Bob the broker
Bereavement
A glass of wine and a slice of
cheesecake
Support Brokerage & Personal Budgets
Independent
Works for Joe
Joe‟s Personal Budget
Professional based upon values,
principles, and an evolving body of
evidence based knowledge
Always listening and learning
Focused upon “A Good Life” (not just
services)
Much more to life than services...
“The best things in life are free!”
Does your support package address your
need for:
Loving and Caring Relationships?
Financial Wellbeing and Choice?
Autonomy, Citizenship, Personal Growth,
and opportunities to contribute and make
a difference?
A Place/Home of your own?
Your Safety and Security (see above!)
Morton‟s fork
A Justification of Cheesecake
No transition from my old service
Battles to go to the supermarket
Battles to see a doctor on my own
Should‟ve gone to Specsavers
Mail opened without my consent
Pressure to move in with another SU
Not allowed to take a complaint further
Interview for staff
Evasive and Intimidating responses to
complaints
Reaction to my article and presentation in
Tullamore
Attempts to resolve my dispute
My Care Package
£100,000 per annum
Contained flat in grounds of the day service
Self
Day service 5 times a week
Shared residential staffing
My Individual Budget
£32, 486 per annum
Personal Assistant Life Coach 20hrs per week £17,998
Professional oversight £4,800
Network Facilitator £1,080
Staff incidental expenses £750
Recruitment £1,500
Induction Training £2,200
Book Keeping/ Admin costs £2,158
Further support broker assistance £2,000
Amount unspent at the time of Service Review £10,500
Team Joe
Bernard Pearson (Lord Chamberlain)
Mandy Fisher (Accountant/ Life
Coach)
Dave Walker Psychologist
Dave Bulman/ Simon Harry
Network Facilitator/ Life Coach
Life Coach
Person Centred and Changing
Prevention is better than Cure
Commissioning what we want and not
what agencies „do‟
Getting it wrong as a sure-fire way to
eventually get it right
Organising and managing to allow for
change
Working ourselves out of a Job
Blurring roles and relationships
My life now
Why Brokerage?
Accountability/ Arrogance/ Stagnancy
(Peter Reid analogy)
Choice
Competition – Excellence
Beaurocratic Limitations of services
Revolution
Accreditation
Service Centred / Incident Centred
Planning
My Conclusions
PCP to be carried out by an independent
Agent on behalf of S.U. Authorities
Control to be solely in the hands of the
service user and their chosen
representatives
Informed and balanced information for S.U.
And their chosen representatives into their
entitlements by law and services available
Each service user should have an
individually tailored support package suited
to their specific needs and not to what the
service can provide
Some Ideas for Policy Makers...
Social Work has degenerated into a
commercial activity - commodities and
services
Services should be supplementary to life –
not a substitute for it
Institutions don‟t always have walls! In fact
the worst are unseen
Government should be about building and
sustaining a decent, caring and
contributing society – discuss!
THANKS
FROM
BOB & JOE
www.livesthroughfriends.org