Surrey picked as a Trailblazer

I am pleased to tell you that Surrey County Council has been chosen to test a national policy that aims to give more choice and control to disabled residents over the care and support they receive.
The Office for Disability Issues are about to announce that we and our partners have been designated as an official Trailblazer for the Right to Control scheme. It's the result of a joint bid by the county council, Surrey Independent Living Council (SILC), the Surrey Coalition of Disabled People and Jobcentre Plus.
The Right to Control is a major step towards improving the lives of disabled people, and we are one of just eight areas in England to be handpicked to test and deliver the national initiative over the next two years. We are being referred to as Trailblazers to reflect the leadership role we are taking in developing this key area of social policy.
I think we have every reason to be pleased about this. First it shows how impressed the selection panel is by our commitment to personalising services for people - putting the customer at the heart of what we do. This is an agenda our Adult Social Care directorate has been working to for some time now and it is very satisfying to be able to build on it in this way.
And second, it shows the progress that Adult Social Care has made over the last 18 months. It recognises that we know what we’re doing and are in an excellent position to help shape the way the scheme is developed and rolled out to other areas. This is about offering services to disabled people in a different way, enabling them to make decisions about their support packages and leading their lives in the way they want to. That’s very exciting.
Of course, a person who is perfectly happy with their existing arrangements can continue as they are. But if someone wants to mix and match different services – such as social care, help finding work, housing services - and wants to take a more active role in buying and arranging different aspects of their care, then they will be able to do so.
I’m sure you will join me in congratulating staff and managers in the Adult Social Care directorate and our partners for their hard work and enthusiasm in making this possible. I should mention the Epsom and Banstead social care team who have been at the forefront of developing self-directed support for older people and people with disabilities in the area. I would also like to thank our partners who helped put the bid together – SILC and the Surrey Coalition of Disabled People - without whom we would not have succeeded.
This is an opportunity to work more closely with our colleagues at Epsom & Ewell and Reigate & Banstead Borough Councils to make our services more efficient for our customers, and I look forward to updating you as we develop our programme. We will spend the next eight to 10 months working with Jobcentre Plus, local disability groups and our local service providers to plan our Trailblazer, which we will launch at the end of 2010.
The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) is leading this project. ODI is a cross-government unit which co-ordinates the work towards the government’s vision of equality for disabled people by 2025.
You can read more about the Right to Control on the ODI website, including a list of all Trailblazers: www.odi.gov.uk/right-to-control
Michael Gosling
Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care