Personalisation: Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work

Personalization has become a social policy buzzword in the twenty-first century as many organizations move steadily away from one-size-fits-all models of service. In this provocative book, Peter Beresford is joined by other top academics to challenge the personalization agenda. Although critical of one-size-fits-all approaches, they contend that personalization turns service users into consumers who are shopping in a care market. This does not facilitate better attunement to user needs, they argue, but an increased commodification of care that actually channels large profits toward a decreasing number of providers at the expense of service quality. A timely debate in an era when public programs are deeply embattled, Personalisation is a careful work of critical policy assessment.