Personalisation is, above all, ‘about giving people choice and control over their lives’, and ensuring that care and support responds to people’s needs and wishes and enables them to ‘lead active, independent and connected lives’ (HM Government, 2012). A key element in enabling people to exercise choice and control is the personal budget, particularly when taken in the form of a direct payment. It might be assumed that having purchasing power automatically gives people choice and control; this is the way that most markets operate. However, research into the experiences of people who are self-funding and buying their own social care support indicates that, on the contrary, this is often an isolated and disadvantaged pathway in which people are ill equipped to make informed decisions (Hudson and Henwood, 2009; Henwood, 2011). Having money alone does not necessarily enable people to take control unless they also have access to appropriate information, advice and advocacy.

The situation of people who are self-funding has – until very recently – been largely absent from the discourse around social care. The changes that are envisaged by the Care Act (2014) should, for the first time (from 2016 onwards), mean that people who pay for their own care have an incentive to approach their council for assessment, and that the council also has new duties to ensure the provision of information and advice and to monitor the spending of self-funders through an individual care account. In effect, this should offer self-funders greater opportunities to share in the wider benefits of personalisation being promoted for people using publicly funded care and support. This chapter explores the implications of the changes that are envisaged and considers how far removed this is from the current experience of most self-funders.

Understanding self-funders

The term ‘self-funders’ is used in a range of ways in social care discussion and refers to a wide spectrum of circumstances. Hudson and Henwood (2009) highlighted a continuum of definitions in common usage including people:

• • part-funded by the council but paying the balance themselves;

• • who could be eligible for council funding but haven’t applied for an assessment;

• • using personal budgets;