- Wakefield SEND Local Offer
- Personal Budgets and Direct Payments
- Personal Budgets in Social Care
Personal Budgets in Social Care
Personal Budgets in Social Care
Personal budgets are available from both Children's and Adult's Social Care
Following an assessment of need, a support plan will be created which describes:
- what your assessed needs are
- the outcomes you need or wish to achieve
- which needs the council will meet and how we will meet them
- information and advice on how to prevent, reduce or delay your future needs for social care
You will be consulted and involved in putting together your support plan so you can share your views and preferences. You will receive a copy of both your assessment and your support plan.
Support plans are reviewed within the first few months of receiving and on an annual basis after that. You can also request a review of your support plan at any time.
Children's social care - children/young people under the age of 18 with a physical disability/learning disability
In children’s social care the Personal Budget is referred to as a ‘Direct Payment’. Assessment will be undertaken by a social worker or early support worker. If a child/young person has a disability then an assessment of need will be completed by a short breaks assessor or social worker and a Personal Budget (Direct Payment) can be considered to meet these needs.
Personal budgets are meant to increase the independence and flexibility of families and young people who have an EHCP. Therefore, LA’s tend to agree that a personal budget can be spent on almost anything, as long as the service or activity that is purchased meets a person’s assessed needs in their EHCP and:
- Is legal,
- Is not related to the NHS or healthcare,
- Does not involve household bills,
- Does not include ongoing housing costs.
A personal budget for social care needs could be used to get help with a child’s personal care, enable a child or a young person to attend leisure activities, fund short breaks such as respite care, pay someone to attend a holiday with the child or young person or be a personal assistant and for buying and maintaining equipment.
It must be noted that there are restrictions in using direct payments to buy care from close relatives who share your household. However, this is at the discretion of the LA and it may be possible to use the money this way if the LA believes it is the only effective way to meet the child’s needs. The maximum amount of residential care that can be bought for a child using direct payments is a single period of four weeks, and 120 days in any 12-month period.
The LA will sometimes request parents to contribute or “top up” the personal budget. This may be beneficial if parents want to purchase more expensive equipment or support than the LA is willing to fund.
The joint Personal Budgets policy (applicable to children’s and adult’s services) sets out the following information:
- Eligibility
- Funding included within a Personal Budget
- Calculating the Personal Budget
- Agreeing the Personal Budget
- Managing and Using the Personal Budget
- Negotiation and Disputes
- Inclusion and Exclusion of Services
Adult social care - Individuals over the age of 18 who have a physical disability/learning disability
A Personal Budget is a way to give families control and flexibility to choose and pay for the services they need. It is an allocation of funding to meet a child’s, young person’s or adult’s (18 years plus) assessed and eligible, unmet support needs.
A Personal Budget is not additional funding, it is about using existing funding in a way that suits your needs better.
A personal budget can be used for services across education, health, children’s social care, adult’s social care or a combination. For information about the services currently available for a Personal Budget, please click here.
Who is eligible?
To have a Personal Budget, you must first have worked with a practitioner to complete an assessment of your (or your child’s) needs. If the assessment shows that you have unmet needs, then some or all of these may be eligible for support and you can choose how the support is delivered via a Personal Budget. For more information about assessments please click on Assessment of Need for care and Support.
Managing a personal budget
Once assessed and agreed, there are 4 ways in which a personal budget can be managed:
- Direct Payment – funding is given directly to the family by the Local Authority for them to manage as a cash budget
- Managed Budget – the Local Authority arranges and pays for services on behalf of the family. Families do not need to manage any of the funding themselves
- Individual Service Fund – a third party organisation or agency manages the Personal Budget on behalf of the family with support provided in line with the person’s wishes.
- Combination – a mix of the three options above
Adults will be means tested under the Adult Social Care Charging Policy. This will determine if they need to make a financial assessment contribution towards the cost of their care.
The joint Personal Budgets policy (applicable to children’s and adult’s services) sets out the following information:
- Eligibility
- Funding included within a Personal Budget
- Calculating the Personal Budget
- Agreeing the Personal Budget
- Managing and Using the Personal Budget
- Negotiation and Disputes
- Inclusion and Exclusion of Services
Examples of how a personal budget can be used
Disability Rights UK outlines a few examples where a personal budget could be used by a young person or a child’s family:
- To recruit staff as personal assistants or buy care and support services from care agencies to help meet eligible and assessed needs in the child or young person’s own home. This could be support for personal care, social needs, pursuing indoor/outdoor activities or be part of the local community,
- Short stays in a care home or respite care (applicable for carers who are given a break from their caring role),
- Accessing a wide range of local community social and education activities and mainstream services such as being involved in sports, horse riding, day trips, going to clubs and leisure or learning centres and education sessions,
- To purchase particular aids and equipment (not provided by NHS) that are required and stated in the support plan as an outcome that needs to be met to promote independence. Direct payments cannot be used to buy equipment already provided by NHS,
- To pay towards transport costs to undertake a variety of outdoor activities (or attending day centres) identified in the care and support plan,
- Attending day services and going to day centres – parents or the young person can arrange for a short trial to visit different day centres to find out about their services and whether they would like to still attend these centres.