‘It was clear from the start that [SDS] was about a cost cutting agenda.’ Exploring disabled people’s early experiences of the introduction of Self-Directed Support in Scotland

Abstract

The adoption of personalisation represents a global paradigm shift in the organisation of social care. However, such approaches have been criticised for failing to bring about transformative change. The passage of the Self-Directed Support (Scotland) Act (2013) was intended to bring about a significant change in the organisation of social care in Scotland, giving increased choice and control to new user groups. The implementation of the policy at a time of significant financial constraint for local government has cast doubt on this potential. This paper presents findings reflecting disabled peoples’ lived experience of this change during the early stages of implementation. Drawing on one-to-one qualitative interviews with disabled people living across the central belt of Scotland, this early snapshot suggests that the policy had not significantly increased choice and control for service users, and that austerity was leading to an erosion of gains made by existing Direct Payments users.

Keywords:

• Self-Directed Support
• Direct Payments
• Personalisation
• Independent Living
• Citizenship

Notes

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article. I would also like to thank Dr Charlotte Pearson for her comments on an early draft. The research included in this paper was supported through an ESRC/Scottish Government Studentship: ES/J500136/1, the support of which is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1. There is considerable debate on terminology with ‘learning disability’ or ‘cognitive impairment’ being the dominant phraseology. The author has adopted ‘people with learning difficulties’ as this is the terminology used by members of People First (Scotland), a disabled people’s organisation who contributed to the research, and who work to ensure that people with learning difficulties have choice and control in all areas of their lives. http://peoplefirstscotland.org/about-us/