Increasing User Choice or Privatizing Risk? The Antinomies of Personalization

Subjection, Social Work and Social Theory

“…Under personalisation, assessment takes place to identify the overall budget a person is entitled to receive, but the money is allocated to the individual either through a direct payment or by establishing an individual budget. In terms of performativity, the 'Personalisation Agenda' effectively shifts the responsibility for organising support from the state to the individual needing support via a form of cash transfer -something that Ferguson (2007) describes as the privatisation of risk onto professionals and service users.…”

“…The advance of the 'Personalisation Agenda' has drawn support from a number of sources including specific groups of service users (Glendinning et al 2008), politicians from across the spectrum (Ferguson 2007), and professional social workers (Samuel, 2009). One possible reason for this is that personalisation is conceptually ambiguous, making it difficult to disagree with its basic premise while it retains a number of contradictory ideas (Ferguson, 2007).…”

“…One possible reason for this is that personalisation is conceptually ambiguous, making it difficult to disagree with its basic premise while it retains a number of contradictory ideas (Ferguson, 2007).…”

“…Other issues arise due to the somewhat fragmented process of implementation and the differences that occur in service provision between urban and rural areas (Manthorpe and Stevens, 2010). Ferguson (2007), drawing on the Canadian experience, suggests that personalisation favours the better educated, may provide a cover for cost-cutting and further privatisation and marketization of services, while the employment conditions of personal assistants may give rise to concern.…”

Going for Brokerage: A Task of 'Independent Support' or Social Work?

“…Although the actual term is never used in Modernising Social Services (Department of Health, 1998), 'personalization' is a clearly traceable development from New Labour's agenda to 'modernize' social services (Leadbetter, 2004;Ferguson, 2007). A decade into modernization, it might reasonably be assumed that the appeal of a term like 'brokerage' is precisely because it speaks of markets, consumerism and entrepreneurship and has no obvious links historically to either social work or the public sector.…”