Social care service users’ experiences of individual budgets: An evaluation from one Local Authority pilot

2008 Conference

Coventry City Council was one of the thirteen local authorities which piloted
Individual Budgets for social care service users. Unlike the national evaluation of
Individual Budgets, Coventry City Council commissioned Coventry University to
evaluate their pilot by capturing service users’ perspectives and experiences of the
extent to which Individual Budgets had empowered them.
The evaluation therefore aimed to capture service users’ experiences and
perspectives. It did this by involving service users from the start. The methods were
eclectic in that service users were supported by the research team to present their
experiences via video diaries, ‘bloggs’, scrap books, drama.
Having an Individual Budgets in social care (and, possibly in health care too) is a
vehicle for empowering service users as service users:

• are able to set the agenda
• have increased choice and autonomy over how their needs were met
• are able to grow and develop holistically
• have increased flexibility of service provision
• are more fully part of their communities