Lessons from Ricoeur’s ‘capable human being’ for practices of personalisation in three European countries

Abstract

Personal budget schemes for people with disabilities are imbued with a conception of autonomous and rational individuals. The policy objective to enlarge people’s opportunities conflicts with the presumed capacity of cognitive rationality. We present an analysis of 15 social work professionals’ reflections on the practical implementation of three personal budget policies. Through a conceptualisation of ‘a capable human being’, we deepen our understanding of the social justice character of personal budget schemes. From this analysis we conclude that a strong formalisation of the application, assessment and allocation practice entails the risk that the relational aspect, which includes questions of meaningful care, is relegated to the background. ‘Being capable’ emerges as a condition for acquiring more options for meaningful care in practice, ahead of the intended contribution to people’s capacities. The continuous attention is required for autonomy in interdependency to be recognised. Points of interest Personal Budget Schemes for people with disabilities are systems that seek to achieve a socially just care system in which autonomy and control are central. Our analysis showed that people with disabilities who need any form of support during the process are granted access to a personal budget much less easily. Management of access in terms of ‘the right provision of a budget’ for ‘the right person’ has a greater weight in practice than the meaning of this access to personal budgets. This results in unequal opportunities for people in need of support in the process of getting a budget. The research recommends that involvement of social work professionals is of great importance for realising ‘good care’ for all.