Personal Budgets in Education

Personal Budgets in Education

• You can only have a Personal Budget for education provision if you have an EHCP in place.
• Requests for a Personal Budget can be made when an EHCP is created or at an annual review.  This request is usually made once an educational professional has identified an unmet need as part of the initial assessment or an assessment for an annual review.

What is a personal budget? 

• A personal budget is an amount of money agreed by the council to deliver the support required for a child or young person as described in an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan where a parent or young person is involved in organising the support.   
• This is usually support that is not available from the educational setting or support services already available in the local authority, but that has been identified as part of the assessments used to create the EHCP.   
• The personal budget will support a young person in achieving a particular outcome in the EHCP that cannot be delivered by the existing services within education, health and social care.  The funding can be provided by education, health or social care depending on the area of need that is requiring support. 
• Section J of the EHCP contains information about the Personal Budget. 
• Please note, any request for a personal budget through an EHC Plan will be considered in relation to the full information within the Children & Families Act 2014, associated regulations about personal budgets and the SEND Code of Practice 2014. 

What are the ways parents/carers and young people can be involved in the delivery of a Personal Budget?

• Direct Payments where individuals receive the money to purchase and manage services themselves 
• An arrangement where the council, school or college holds the funds and commissions the support specified in the plan (these are sometimes called notional budgets) 
• Third party arrangements where money is paid to a third party individual or organisation and managed on behalf of the child’s parents or the young person. 
• A combination of the above. 

What sort of things can a Personal Budget for special educational provision be used for?

Amongst other things a personal budget agreed through an EHC Plan could include:- 

• Adding to existing learning support; 
• Something delivered specifically for the individual child or young person and/or to fund specialist input; 
• Work experience or work-based learning opportunities; 
• Add to the technology available to promote a child or young person’s individual learning style.