Personal budgets and the pedagogical project of care institutions in Flanders

The care for disabled people in Flanders is currently undergoing a major social policy reform under the introduction of a personal budget scheme. Disability services in Flanders are explicitly expected to develop a demand-driven provision of care services. This transition stems from the urge for autonomy and self-determination of disabled people and is aimed to deinstitutionalise the care for people with disabilities. The central question addressed is the way in which the introduction of personal budgets influences the ability of Flemish care institutions to shape their practice. Our findings depict that care institutions emphasise the importance of a dialogical process, in which different views of ‘good care’ can be discussed. However, in policy implementation, a particular focus on ‘a self-aware and autonomous individual’ as an objective would make this process more challenging. Our analysis identifies how a far-reaching focus on autonomy and self-determination does not guarantee high-quality care. Nor would the opposite: major autonomy for care institutions. Rather than balancing the negotiating positions, the Flemish personal budget scheme tends to push disability services into an executive role in which the possibilities of a pedagogy as an emancipatory project shrink.