WIRRAL is leading the way in training social services and health workers in the new “personalisation” approach to helping vulnerable people.

The authority is the first in the country to team up with the Open University to offer a Masters-level course to train those working in social care on radical reforms being brought in by the Government.

The idea is that direct payments and individual budgets are the key to delivering greater choice and improved quality.

Individual budgets give people a clear, up-front idea about how much money is available for their support.

During pilot projects held around the country, different kinds of funding were brought together to give a more joined-up package of support.

People were then able to use that money in a way that best suited their own needs. They were supported by their care manager, advocate, family or friends to plan what they wanted and how to organise it.

John Webb, director of Wirral’s social services, said the new course would be offered to social services and healthy workers from early next year and the pilot would then be extended across the country. He said: “It’s very exciting. It’s something we had been thinking about and talking to a number of higher education establishments about.

“What the Open University has done – and it’s a real challenge – is that they will be writing the curriculum now.”

He said the usual lengthy lead-in for creating a new academic course was being avoided because of the urgency in training staff for the changes being made in social care.

Mr Webb said: “The Open University will deliver the academic part and we will provide the practice element of the course.”