Right policy, wrong way to go about it

Anyone who has attempted to make an application for Self Directed Support (SDS) to assist with social care will recognise the frustrations highlighted in a report for the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General.

Those who would benefit from Self Directed Support are not being given the helping hand they need.

The initiative is an excellent idea, but the process involved is far from user-friendly, leaves those it is intended to help trying to negotiate a maze in the dark, while wearing a blindfold for good measure. It can be a bewildering prospect for the most switched-on individual; for the elderly or the easily confused, it 
is daunting to the point of dissuasive.

In principle, SDS can make a real difference to the lives of those who need social care, as it allows them to seek and secure the kind of support that is most relevant to their circumstances. Help making a journey to the shops could be the answer to one person’s problems if mobility is an issue, while help with personal care at home might be another person’s requirements. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to social care support, and through SDS, an individual can make choices that will ensure that resource is spent effectively.

Those who qualify and receive SDS will acknowledge that it has helped them, but for too many, accessing the support is not an experience they would recommend. The process is bureaucratic and lacks a clear pathway which can be identified, and followed, by the person in need of social care. Amendments to the system, to date, have only created further confusion over who to turn to when seeking guidance or advice. Potential applicants can simply give up, after losing patience and then losing hope.

Age Scotland has pinpointed the issues with its call for misunderstandings to be cleared up and bureaucracy to be reduced, and the Accounts Commission has concluded that “there is no evidence of the transformation required to fully implement the policy”.

But this can be fixed. It would not be the first progressive policy to fail to achieve its desired objective because it was poorly executed.

At present, the SDS process is designed more to fit into social work structures – unfathomable to the lay person – than to make sense to the user. The emphasis must change, to put the user first and to encourage take-up. This policy can work, but only if it can be understood by those in society who are most in need of understanding.