Description: Personalisation has become the policy buzz-word of the twenty-first century. Supporters claim it offers service users choice and services attuned to meet their specific needs, moving away from 'one size fits all' state services. In this short form book, part of the Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work series, Peter Beresford, one of Britain's foremost social work academics, challenges the personalisation agenda and its consequences on service users. Although critical of 'one size fits all' services that deny service user voice, Beresford argues that personalisation turns service users into 'consumers' of services within a care market and hence reinforces the commodification of care which sees vast profits made by a small number of providers at the expense of good quality services for those who use them.
Brief description: Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the user led organisation and network as a long term user of mental health services. He has a longstanding track record of work in the field of participation and citizen involvement as academic, service user, researcher, educator and activist.