5 Things We've Learned about SDS

5
things we’ve learned about
self-directed support
plus some thoughts about the RAS
Simon Duffy

• Internationally the shift towards self-directed support in
public services (in some form or other) has been going
on since at least the 1960s.
• The process has been slow, and largely driven by a
mixture of pressure from people and families, with
occasional bursts of leadership from within system.
• It has been consistently associated with outcome
improvements, but it challenges vested interests and
the inertia of bureaucratic systems.
• The latest wave of reform in the UK, named
personalisation, is a mixed bag of positive intentions
and confused thinking but it is, and is likely to continue
to be, an important theme for the decades ahead.

• I began experimenting with self-directed support in
London in the early 1990s working with people with
learning disabilities
• In 1996, as part helping people leave institutions and
establishing Inclusion Glasgow, I invented the
concept of an Individual Service Fund.
• As head of In Control from 2003-2009 I constructed a
model of self-directed support for social care in
England. I also worked with Pippa Murray in Sheffield
to develop a model of personalised support and
education for children and young adults.
• In 2009 I established The Centre for Welfare Reform to
support more radical change in the design of the
welfare state.

“Design is a funny word. Some people think
design means how it looks. But of course, if you
dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design
of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although
that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it
worked. To design something really well, you
have to get it. You have to really get what it's all
about. It takes a passionate commitment to
really thoroughly understand something, chew it
up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people
don't take the time to do that.”
Steve Jobs

“That's been one of my mantras — focus and
simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex:
You have to work hard to get your thinking clean
to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end
because once you get there, you can move
mountains.”
Steve Jobs

“For every complicated problem, there is a
solution that is simple, direct, understandable
and wrong.”
H L Mencken

5
Negative Things We
Learned

1. It’s NOT about markets
• There is no evidence that the benefits of self-directed
support are about markets - except for the
fact that the basic right to take your budget
elsewhere might help ‘wake people up’
• It’s not markets - it’s people, community and
creativity that make the difference in people’s lives

2. It’s NOT about consultants
• Government funded enthusiasm tends to
manufacture phoney expertise - we seek comfort in
going to consultants - the fatter the better - to hold
our hands.
• But real expertise comes from people with lived
experience of the innovation.
• Champions of innovation need to create their own
peer support.

3. It’s NOT about brokerage
• There is no evidence that the benefits of self-directed
support rely on complex system of
independent advocacy or service brokerage.
• Sometimes a fresh face and pair of hands can
help, but mostly its about giving the people who
are already there the chance to do something
better.

4. It’s NOT about planning
• People do not change their lives by planning to change
their lives. But planning (and training to plan, or training
to train to plan) becomes one of the biggest ways the
system wastes people’s time and money
• People learn to change their lives by having control
and using that control to make positive changes, plus
• By learning from other people who’ve made positive
changes
• Change is simple and social - keep it that way

5. It’s NOT government
• If a positive new way of working develops, and people
feel free to experiment, then many people (not
necessarily all) will change what they do as they come
to believe in the better way of working.
• But if this new way of working is seen as a formula
designed and promoted by government then it
becomes easy to kill people’s sense of their own
freedom and the real meaning of the change vanishes.
• Government and bureaucracies don’t innovate.

5
Positive Things We
Learned

1. It demands LEADERSHIP
• The most important person for making real change
happen is the person themselves - and their immediate
friends, family or those who support them. Self-directed
support simply is a form of citizen leadership.
• For people in the system leadership is exercised by
creating environments which make it easier for people
and professionals to exercise such leadership.
• The middle-manager is critical to this process of
liberation.

2. It demands TRUST
• There will be no change unless there is a
substantial shift in the amount of real and
meaningful power that people can exercise.
• This demands trust in people’s capacities and a
system is that happy to let people learn through the
natural process of trying things out, making
mistakes and changing their minds.
• This requires us to recognise the negative impact
of institutional solutions that freeze people into bad
decision-making.

It demands CLARITY
• People cannot be empowered unless they know
where they stand - their rights - their entitlements -
and their responsibilities.
• Ambiguity, complexity and obscurity always tend to
serve the long-term interests of the powerful.

It demands CONNECTION
• Above all people seek a decent human relationship
with professionals in public services.
• Above all people learn about what’s possible from
their peers.
• This means the social aspect of any new system is
critical.

It demands CITIZENSHIP
• We need to rethink the goal of public services.
• We need to move away from treating people as
passive subjects, and start to see people as active
citizens.
• Community and positive social change are
achieved by citizens.
• Public servants must, above all else, see
themselves as servants of active citizenship.

• The RAS - Resource Allocation System - was jargon
I created to encourage local authorities to let people
know what they were entitled to as early in the
process as feasible
• It was not intended to rationalised rationing or make
cuts - although in practice this is what it has often
become
• The first models were simple offered a simple rule of
thumb to creative and indicative budget upon which
further planning and a final budget could be agreed.
• In my view the combination of thoughtless
implementation and the ‘need’ to make cuts has led
to progressively more dangerous approaches.

• Our responsibility to set a fair budget must remain
in place.
• We may be able to make a reasonable estimate
using some empirical grounded guidance - but
nobody has provided any evidence that there is a
reliable formula for setting fair and reasonable
budgets.
• The most important two things in setting a fair
budget are:
• Do people think it will do the job
• Does experience show it is actually working

Do without doing.
Act without action.
Savour the flavourless.
Treat the small as large,
the few as many.
!
Meet injury
with the power of goodness.
!
Study the hard while it's easy.
Do big things while they're small.
The hardest jobs in the world start out easy,
the great affairs of the world start small.
!
So the wise soul,
by never dealing with great things,
gets great things done.
!
Now since taking things too lightly makes them worthless,
and taking things too easy makes them hard,
the wise soul,
by treating the easy as hard,
doesn't find anything hard.
Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching

5 Things We've Learned about SDS

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