Personalisation: what can we learn from education? Maggie Challis Skills for Care

Personalisation in social care Concept has always underpinned value base of social care Consistent message (expressed in range of vocabulary) about what people want from services and people who deliver them 1970 The Client Speaks (Mayer and Timms) 1980 The Barclay Report 1988 The Wagner Report 1989 Caring for People (White Paper) 2006 Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (White Paper) 2007 Putting People First 2009 Green Paper

What does personalisation mean? Not just about individual budgets and direct payments, but about who is in the driving seat when considering services To deliver personalised care services will require not necessarily new skills, but a new approach, new management processes and new job roles

Personalisation policy in education 1984 – DES Records of Achievement 1988 – Training Agency Employment Training Programme 1991 – DE and DES National Record of Achievement 1996 – Re-launch of NRA as ‘progress file’ 2001 – Individual learning plans for post-16 programmes 2006 – LSC Recognising and recording progress and achievement (RARPA)

Recognising and recording progress and achievement (RARPA) Staged process involving 5 elements: Aims appropriate to an individual learner or group of learners Initial assessment to establish the learner’s starting point Identification of appropriately challenging learning objectives Recognition and recording of progress and achievement during programme End of programme learner self-assessment; tutor summative assessment; review of overall progress and achievement

Personalisation policy in higher education Personal development plans (QAA 2004) PDP is 'a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development'.

What are PDPs for? Intended to help students:  become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners  understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context  improve their general skills for study and career management  articulate their personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement  and encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life

PDP But role is still unclear: –Context for learning (learner view) –Emphasise degree of learner responsibility for own learning (academic staff view) –Enhance recruitment and retention (senior managers view)

Recording should support plan-do-review cycle, not the other way round ‘If we took a spec or template approach and specified what PLP should do rather than what it should include, the resultant flexibility would give students/academics more space to tailor it to the student’s needs’ (Participant at LLN consultation event)

Where are PDPs used most? Mainly linked to vocational programmes Negotiated learning programmes Built into Foundation degrees Integrated into Lifelong Learning Network spec – designed for use on a continuing basis across transitions (FE/HE/employment)

Overlap between education and social care ‘Public service reform should be user centred. It should be organised to deliver better solutions for the people who use the services.’ ‘Lately the government has been arguing that personalisation is precisely the way in which services can become more responsive. The question is whether they see this as a radical solution or not.’ ‘We need a new framework to show how personal needs can be taken into account with universal equity and excellence in education.’ ‘What would happen if we started to imagine personalisation at a “deeper” level, whereby users began to take on some of the roles of the producers in the actual design and shaping of the education system?’ (Gibbon M (2004) Learning about personalisation: how can we put the learner at the heart of the education system? Demos, London)

What does this mean for social work education? ‘Learners who have been supported to achieve in terms of a personalised agenda for learning are more likely to understand what personalisation means for their customers.’ (Futurelab research into a personalised approach to learning futurelab.org.uk)

Learner’s charter for a personalised learning environment Choices Skills and knowledge Appropriate learning environments Feedback

Task How far would your learning environment reflect the principles of the Learner’s Charter? How could these principles be adapted so that social workers have a framework within which to work with people use use social care services?