Personalisation – love it or hate it?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on five reasons why personalisation is so contested. It aims to highlight the shared themes that point to common ground between advocates and critics of personalisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on different academic and practitioner perspectives on personalisation, covering both advocates for and critics of the personalisation reforms. Findings – The paper concludes by suggesting that the development of self-directed support in Scotland has the potential to develop social care change in ways which may be palatable to both sides of the English policy debate. Originality/value – People who support and critique personalisation often write in ways which do not directly engage with the perspectives of the other side. Here the authors engage directly with the points of difference to explicate why such a diversity of perspectives exists, and how there is more common ground than might be assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]