Embarking on self-directed support in Scotland: a focused scoping review of the literature

Abstract

This article presents findings from a focused scoping review of the published literature on self-directed support (SDS), the term adopted by the Scottish Government to refer to its policy to improve social care outcomes and choices for people using publicly funded services and to distinguish it from personalisation, the term more commonly used in England, and from consumer-directed-care and cash for counselling. The review was undertaken to inform an evaluation of the early adopters of SDS, funded by the Scottish Government 2009–2011, and was updated with later literature. It focused on the evidence base available to inform the Test Sites' (pilot local authorities) efforts to reduce bureaucracy or ‘red tape’ for people choosing their own social care and support; the available evidence about leadership and training to support these changes and about the use of specific transitional funding to ease the process of implementation. The findings of the literature review around these three themes are presented and discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential for such focused literature reviews to inform policy-makers, researchers, and social work practitioners across Europe of the options available when seeking to combine rapid yet rigorous approaches to evidence.

Keywords:

• Scotland
• social work
• social care
• self-directed support
• personalisation

Acknowledgements and disclaimer

We are most grateful to other members of the wider evaluation team: Jessica Hindes and Louise Joly of King's College London, Simon Little of Kinbank, Helen Spandler of the University of Central Lancashire, Tony Kinder of the University of Edinburgh, Bill Gray, disability consultant, and Adam Rosengard of Rosengard Associates. The views expressed in this article are the authors' own and should not be interpreted as the views of the Scottish Government, the funders of this research.

Notes on contributors

Jill Manthorpe is Professor of Social Work and Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London. She has a background in the voluntary sector and in higher education and has been Chair of an Adult Safeguarding Committee. Her research interests in adult safeguarding include personalisation, risk, mental capacity and serious case reviews. She is a Senior Investigator with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and Associate Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research. She is a member of the Department of Health's Adult Safeguarding Advisory Board and has advised other national governments on the subject of responses to adult abuse.

Stephen Martineau is Research Associate at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London. He is particularly interested in socio-legal issues in social care and has undertaken research on serious case reviews, vetting and barring schemes and employment support.

Michelle Cornes is Senior Research Fellow in the Social Care Workforce Unit, King's College London, UK. She is a Fellow of the NIHR School for Social Care Research. Her research interests include the housing and social care workforce, inter-professional and integrated working and evaluations of social care policy and practice. She is currently working on developing communities of practice in homelessness services and has recently completed studies of services for people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness and of agency workers.

Julie Ridley is Senior Research Fellow by Reader in Social Policy and practice investigator for the evaluation of the SDS Test Sites in Scotland. She was co-author of the first study on Direct Payments and mental health service users in Scotland in 2002.

Ann Rosengard is Director of Ann Rosengard Associates (ARA) which conducts a wide range of social research, as well as strategic reviews and evaluations for central and local government agencies, partnerships and voluntary organisations. She has managed ARA as a social research company since 1993. ARA projects usually address the interface between homelessness, community care, health and housing; and have investigated wide-ranging needs and vulnerability issues, including those relating to violence against women, mental health, disabilities, addictions and multiple and complex needs.

Susan Hunter recently retired as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh. Her teaching and research interests are in the fields of disability, advocacy, adult protection and community care. She has been actively involved in the development and management of several voluntary organisations in these fields.

Notes

1. For full report see Manthorpe, Hindes et al (2011).