Having established what services the group you are working with need, and started a process to improve those services to meet needs more closely, you can also start to personalise service delivery.

At its furthest extent this can mean giving people the tools to customise services, or information about them, to the circumstances of each individual. An example is the way Norfolk County Council gives adults with additional needs the budget to meet their needs so they can buy the services themselves rather than the council buying them on their behalf. This includes choosing the care home or home support services older people and those with disabilities get, or the aids and adaptations they have to their home to help them live independently.
Norfolk County Council provides a menu of approved services to help them choose, but they can decide to find alternatives that are not on the list.

For most services personalisation will not go this far but will involve pulling together lists of the range of services groups of people in shared circumstances may want. An example is Norfolk’s Children and Families service directory (http://search3.openobjects.com/kbroker/ncc/fsd/start.jsp) which groups services against headings like Childcare and Out of School Services, parenting and family support, schools and education or special needs and disabilities. Another example is a website like Brighter Lives in Norfolk (http://www.brighterlivesinnorfolk.org.uk/ ) which brings together information for migrant workers and others moving to the
county.

If you start to carry out more customer profiling and use the same set of profile groups consistently you will build up a richer and richer picture of that group and therefore be able to target services more effectively.