Participatory accountability in new welfare governance reforms: the case of the Australian personalisation agenda

The personalisation agenda and the shift towards individualised budgets remains strong within welfare governance approaches worldwide. Recent work has argued that personalised funding offers new opportunities for participatory... [ view full abstract ]

The personalisation agenda and the shift towards individualised budgets remains strong within welfare governance approaches worldwide. Recent work has argued that personalised funding offers new opportunities for participatory accountability. Using a case study of personalised funding in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme, this paper explores the promise of personalised funding schemes and the associated changes for accountability within new public governance reforms. Data is drawn from semi-structured interviews with government actors and disability service providers in Canberra and Melbourne, Australia. We argue that new forms of participatory accountability may be available to people in personalisation schemes that are empowered through other means such as advocacy support, kinship, wealth and education. However, participants who experience complex vulnerabilities, and are potentially institutionalised towards passive consumption of care services, may not be as empowered to exercise accountability for their care and achieve the sort of participatory accountability that proponents of personalisation schemes espouse. The worldwide scope of personalisation within new public governance highlights an important intellectual space for those interested in participatory forms of accountability; can participatory accountability be achieved via the marketization of social supports?