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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Needs targeting and resource allocation in community care | | Author(s) | Tim Blackman, Ann Atkinson |
| Journal title | Policy Studies, vol 18, no 2, June 1997 |
| Pages | pp 125-138 |
| Keywords | Community care ; Grant allocation ; Needs [elderly] ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | The concept of a `needs-led' approach to community care in the UK is associated with a series of contradictions and dilemmas brought about by cash-limited budgets. This article reviews recent developments, and seeks to resolve some of these problems by focusing on the concept of `targeting'. It considers approaches to allocating a given budget between different types and levels of need using two case studies. The first is an example of `formula funding', whereby a local authority's budget for home care services is allocated to local offices according to statistical indicators of need. A limitation with this approach is that it is not necessarily those with the greatest needs who receive the greatest support from the home care budget. The second case study is an example of how survey methods can be used to assess whether services reach the people intended to benefit. The article concludes that the `gatekeeping' role of assessments is important to safeguard equity without the inflexibility of highly standardised tests of eligibility, but that the outcomes should be monitored, especially when increasing financial pressures may be leading care managers to make a growing number of ad hoc rationing decisions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980720001 A |
| Classmark | PA: QCG: IK: 4C |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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