Do self‐assessment and self‐directed support undermine traditional social work with disabled people?

Abstract

In recent years, self‐assessment and self‐directed support have become mainstream options within disability services. The Disabled People’s Movement has advocated the need for such change for a long time but this has been persistently resisted by many social workers. In this article, it will be argued that both self‐assessment and self‐directed support undermine traditional social work and that social workers need to begin to work alongside disabled people, rather than ‘for’ disabled people, in order to achieve substantial system change.

Keywords:

• self‐assessment
• self‐directed support
• social work
• Disabled People’s Movement
• personalisation