Personal budgets are designed to give people more choice and control over the support and provision they receive.
The personal budgets approach has developed over time. It is embedded in a number of pieces of legislation across Social Care, Health and Education.
The SEND Code of Practice states that Education, Health and Social Care partners should set out a local policy for personal budgets.
The local policy sets out information about personal budgets for children and young people who the local authority maintains an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for.
It is recognised both on a local and national level that personal budgets need to be developed.
Education, Health and Social Care all use a criteria list. This helps to decide if someone can get extra resources. Then they decide if it will be a personal budget.
All personal budgets are different. We create them to meet the needs, provision and outcomes in an EHC Plan.
EHC Personal Budget Statements
If a child/young person has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan they or their parents can request a Personal Budget Statement. This statement sets out the extra funding they will have, linked to the EHC Plan. It gives clarity to the family about how much extra funding they get. It details if any of this is available as a direct cash payment. The Personal Budget Statement was developed with partners in response to the Children and Families Act. It is separate from the EHC Plan and is not a statutory document.
Find out more information about Personal Budgets and Personal Budget Statements