What is Personalised Care?

You likely already have some awareness of the changing demands on the NHS, the model of personalised care and why the policy has been developed.

What is Personalised Care?

Taking a personalised approach to health and care services isn’t a new idea. But what is new, is the way personalised care brings together a combination of tried and tested ways to offer people more joined up care that focuses on what matters to them.

Personalised care is a whole population model. This means that everyone in England can benefit. For example, you might want to choose your GP or you might want to choose the people who provide care and support in your home if you have on-going health needs. Personalised care can benefit everyone.

So, it’s helpful to know what happens when a policy has been developed.

Once NHS England has developed a national policy, local healthcare organisations adapt the policy based on their local priorities and population needs. These healthcare organisations work together as an Integrated Care System (ICS).

• ICSs include Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and local health and care services such as hospitals, community services and general practice.
• CCGs plan and pay for services.

For an insight into how the NHS works in England, you can watch this video.

The Case for Personalised Care

Local priorities and the needs of the local population vary from area to area. What works and is needed for people living in a large city, may not work for people in a rural area, and what works for people living in the countryside may not work in a city. As we know, ‘one size doesn’t fit all’.

Demand on local services can also vary if there are more older people, for example, which leads to different priorities and policies. It also means that putting policy into action, may take longer or shorter and be different to a neighbouring area.

In some circumstances, you have legal ‘rights to choose’ and you must be given those choices by law. In other circumstances, you do not have a legal right to choose, but you should be offered a choice about your care, depending on what is available locally. We explain more about this in the section ’your legal rights to choose’.

Experiencing Personalised Care

Now we’ve looked at the role of national policy, let’s move onto exploring the first of six ways people can experience personalised care. We’ll start with shared decision making.