VAC's latest provider seminar on 21 April gave providers the opportunity to share their experience and views on the opportunities and challenges personalisation presents. Organised by Penny Wilkin and Harjeet Matharu of our Voluntary Sector Market Development Programme (funded by NHS Coventry), the seminar saw presentations from Grapevine and Penderels Trust on their experience of personalisation followed by table debates.

The Council's vision for personalisation has been set out by Director of Community Services Brian Walsh as:

"We will directly support, or influence others, to enable every adult to have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life based on their individual choices and aspirations"

This covers a wide range of interventions from personal budgets and Direct Payments through to a change of mindset around what services people actually need and how best to receive them. The Council held two events for service users, staff, carers, and both voluntary sector and private sector providers in March - VAC's follow-up seminar focused specifically on voluntary sector providers. Coventry LINk are organising a series of focus groups up to June to explore service user perspectives.

Providers are keen to support personalisation but the biggest worry at the moment is the impact of the lack of financial stability upon efforts to drive forward personalisation, in particular the replacement of some block contracts with ‘call-off' frameworks (for more information click here) Working with staff to personalise services is much harder if charities have to move from a core of experienced, well-trained staff to bank staff.

VAC's next seminar for providers is on 19 May on the Commissioning Cycle whilst the wider Health and Social Care Forum on 27 May will be looking at who does what in NHS Coventry and how the organisation works. For more details, contact Harjeet Matharu on 7622 0381 or h.matharu@vacoventry.org.uk