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.
Following a social care assessment of need, a direct payment is one way of meeting the identified needs of eligible children or young people.
A personal budget is unique to each child or young person, and is designed to meet the identified needs, provision and outcomes set out 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