Finance | 1 Jun 2009

A radical change in social care funding designed to empower recipients will challenge charity accounting systems, say Mark Brend and Brendan Smith.

From 2005 onwards a number of central government policy initiatives heralded the most radical reform of social care for half a century. Notably, in December 2007 Putting People First established the principle of personalisation of social care services, giving people more control over their own lives and services. These initiatives will have a profound impact on the charity sector, as much social care is provided by charities that get most of their income from public money, allocated via local authority contracts.