Exploring social inclusion and participation: assessing the impact of the Care Act (2014) on the social experience of caring.

Summary: The Care Act (2014) places a duty on Local Authorities to meet the eligible needs of carers in the form of personal budgets (PBs). PBs are positioned as a lever that will promote carer wellbeing. In the context of the Care Act wellbeing is conceptualised broadly to include economic and social participation. However, despite the 5.4 million adult carers in England, little is known about the efficacy of PBs on promoting carer wellbeing, particularly as PBs have been central to the personalisation agenda reforming adult social care in recent years. This thesis sought to explore this knowledge gap using a mixed-methods design built around three phases. Methods: Each phase is presented as a separate study as follows: 1. Examines the intentions behind PBs as a solution to the problem of caring: A post-structural policy analysis of Care Act (2014) guidance using: ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) method. 2. Identifies if the policy intentions led to improvements in carer wellbeing: A quantitative secondary descriptive analysis of national performance and inferential analysis of carer specific survey data. 3. Explores the lived effects of the policy intentions: A thematic analysis of interview data with 17 carers. Findings: The Care Act (2014) guidance reflects a ‘responsibilising’ agenda where care is viewed as the responsibility of the family. Regression analysis shows that PBs do not improve wellbeing and the number of carers assessed and supported between 2014 and 2020 has declined. The transactional mode of PB administration takes no account of the relational way in which care and care giving are experienced by participants. Application: This thesis demonstrates that further research is required to understand caring as both an ethical and political process that extends beyond the micro level interaction between people in families. Participation of carers in society cannot be achieved by a PB alone.