A 10 year strategy to implement personalised social care across Scotland has entered open consultation this week, with a government report expected by the end of this Spring.

The strategy for self-directed support could dramatically alter how social care jobs are funded and managed by local authorities. It follows a similar strategy for England and Wales - the three-year "Putting People First Programme".

The Scottish strategy aims to make "self-directed support [the] mainstream mechanism for the delivery of social care" in Scotland. The devolved government of Scotland will be consulting on 26 recommendations included in the strategy. It will inform new legislation that hopes to address existing barriers to self directed support and increase the uptake of direct payments.

Similar to the English programme, the Scottish strategy hopes to prepare for the future pressures caused by an ageing population, as well as helping to meet current financial constraints on public funding.

Among the recommendations is the promotion of 'individual budgets', parallel to the English version 'personal budgets'. These would allocate users a sum of money to meet their assessed needs and give them the option of taking the money as a direct payment or to opt for the council or a third party to administer the funds.

Other recommendations include assessing the role and funding of support organisations and a review of the existing rates for direct payments and individual budgets. The consultation must ensure that its strategy for these includes enough provision to enable users to meet the costs of social care such as staff training.