Accessible summary This study explores the impact differing ideas about personalisation has on the way in which self‐directed support operates, particularly in the light of cuts to social service budgets. Six participants from a local authority social care transformation team, five from a user‐led organisation and two national experts were interviewed. The findings suggest that whilst generally a positive process, in some cases, self‐directed support has become confusing, and personal budget holders have had less say over how their outcomes are met. The research is useful for people with learning disabilities as it provides an insight into what is happening in local authorities and the impact of the cuts on self‐directed support. Summary In 2007, ‘self‐directed support’ was introduced in adult social care in England to establish choice and control – in the assessment process itself and over service provision – for all service users. The personalisation agenda is underpinned by a range of ideologies, particularly a civil rights empowerment approach and neoliberal market discourses. This research sought to explore how tensions between these discourses are reflected in the operation of self‐directed support, particularly in the light of the changing political and economic climate. The small‐scale study involved semi‐structured interviews with 13 participants: six professionals from a local authority social care transformation team, five from a user‐led organisation and two national experts. The findings suggest that whilst the choice and control agenda may be consistent with market discourses, it is not compatible with neoliberal aspirations of cost‐cutting. To maintain trust and provide as much opportunity for choice and control as possible, the adjustments being made to the personalisation agenda in the light of the current budgetary pressures need to be made explicit to service users.

No abstract

Abstract. Changes in morphology during ontogeny can have profound impacts on the physiology and biology of a species. Studies of ontogenetic disparity through time are rare because of the lack of preservation of developmental stages in the fossil record. As they grow by incremental chamber accretion and retain evidence of growth in their shell, planktic foraminifera are an ideal group for the study ontogenetic disparity through the evolution of a higher taxon. Here, we quantify different developmental stages in Jurassic foraminifers and infer the evolutionary implications of the shape of these earliest representatives of the group. Using a Zeiss Xradia micro-CT scanner, the development of Globuligerina bathoniana and Globuligerina oxfordiana from the Bathonian sediments of Gnaszyn, Poland, and Globuligerina balakhmatovae and Globuligerina tojeiraensis from the Kimmeridgian Tojeira Formation of Portugal was reconstructed. Disparity is low through the early evolution of planktic foraminifers. The number of chambers and range in surface area per unit volume are lower than in modern specimens. We interpret this morphology as an indication of opportunistic behaviour. The low morphological plasticity during the juvenile stage suggests that strong constraints on the juveniles, described in the modern ocean, were already acting on Jurassic specimens. The high surface area per unit volume in these developmental stages points towards the need to satisfy a higher metabolic demand than in the adult specimens. We are interpreting the lower chamber numbers as indicative of short life cycles and potentially rapid reproduction, both of which may have allowed these species to exploit the nutrient-rich waters of the Jurassic Tethys Ocean.