Rethinking personalisation of care and support in the Covid-19 pandemic

Keywords: Personalisation; social care; support; pandemic
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 4/9/2021 08:00 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/9/2021 09:15 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 40

Abstract

Personalisation has become the key principle of social care and support provision in the UK and elsewhere in the Global North. There has been a shift of funding and responsibility in providing care and support services, from national and local governments and professional staff, to individuals, families and community organisations - now increasingly expected to ‘self-build’ care ‘packages’. At the same time, a new landscape of care has emerged, with homes, public sites and ‘mainstream’ spaces where care is now largely delivered, as formal care sites close or focus on those with highest care needs. Drawing on a recent study in the UK with people with learning disabilities in four case-study communities, the paper will argue that local community organisations have developed into a crucial, yet often fragile, temporary and unsustainable, infrastructure of social care and support, on which many people with learning disabilities and their families depend. We argue that for personalisation to be sustained and meaningful, it must be rethought as a set of relational practices, involving individuals and their families and local organisations. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted these fragile relational infrastructures of support; many people with learning disabilities have become increasingly isolated, as care provision is withdrawn/limited or delivered online, and local organisation spaces – valued as places to seek support and for meaningful engagements with local communities – have remained largely closed. The paper reflects on how the pandemic challenges and justifies a rethink of the principle, practice and spaces of personalisation.