Oldham SEND Pathfinder
Personal Budgets
An Oldham Perspective
Wednesday 6th March 2013
Julie Hawkins: Short Breaks &
Transformation Manager
Personal Budgets – Culture change –
winning hearts and minds
• In early stages consulted ‘In Control’ & Oldham Adult
Services and ‘friendly others’
• Commissioned Person Centered Planning training
package encompassing train the trainer to build
capacity for long term sustainability. Parents and
professionals from Local Authority and Health
attended.
• Information events/meetings with professionals and
providers including social care, access team, health,
schools, early years, further education and voluntary
sector.
• In it together approach with professionals and
parents as partners.
What is a personal budget?
Personal Budget
RAS – Resource Allocation System
Completed with families –leads to clear indicative budget
based on assessed need.
Choice of how the budget is spent outlined in a support plan owned by family
Traditional services
Direct Payment
Or a range of options in between
Personal Budgets – ‘Social care’ Pilot
• Prior to being a Pathfinder we had commenced work to
develop a pilot focusing on short breaks / social care and
maybe health
• Expression of interest from families reflecting range of
needs / age range – numerous meetings with families – 10
volunteer families
• Each family supported by Project Manager and named
worker – social worker / community nurse
• Regular pilot group meetings with professionals involved
and families
Personal Budgets – ‘Social care’ Pilot
• Agreeing what’s in and what’s not in or maybe in with
negotiation
• Unit costing services
• Paperwork & Process – Resource Allocation System
(RAS)
• Agreed initial ‘pounds for points’ level
• Training and information events for staff / parents ongoing
• PATH / Support Planning
Personal Budgets – ‘Social care’ Pilot
• Provider meetings work towards market readiness.
• Tender process created preferred providers list to
increase market choice
• Developing process/systems to support
implementation in line with adult services
• Desk top exercise using adapted ‘In control’ RAS with
50 families across age / need range
Personal Budgets – ‘Social care’ Pilot Evaluation
• Key findings and issues to consider:
- Wonderful and positive experience for my family
- Path planning raises parent expectations
- What’s in e.g. equipment, other family members etc
- Ensuring support plans reflect individual needs and are
linked to the child’s assessed needs
- Message from all workers involved needs to be consistent
and positive
- Exposes full needs
- Age differences – guidance in assessing
- ‘Pounds for Points’ levels
- Supporting parents when they have their budget – team
capacity long term
- Timescales for implementation need to improve
Personal Budgets-Health pilot
• Worked alongside LA, shared learning and training.
• Struggled to recruit and sustain family involvement.
- Death of Child
- Families felt system too complicated
- Families have felt choice restricted due to health's
strict guidelines regarding care support.
-Limited support planning resources.
Personal Budgets – Education Pilot
• Summer 2012 Personal Budget project group extended to
include heads, SENCO’s, ‘central’ SEN staff, educational
psychologists etc
• Workshop consultations with parents
• Identifying families and schools – mainstream and special
for pilot
• Unit cost calculation
• Work on RAS to include education
• Phased approach to implementation in education similar to
that of social care
• April 2013 commence pilot
Personal Budgets – Education Pilot
• Agreed what’s in and what’s out or with negotiation:
-In: Transport, TA support
-Negotiation: equipment, teacher time, additional
support
services
- Out: Therapies
• Virtual budget exercise to examine potential implications for
settings and families - create framework for pilot
families/schools.
• FE: working on high needs funding form to ensure colleges can
clearly demonstrate how they are meeting individual
objectives/outcomes for individuals.
Personal Budgets-Future implications and
considerations
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Personal Budgets Policy
Contingency funds
Appeals Process
Prepayment cards/accountancy – audits
Infra Structure to support personalisation –
aligned/pooled budgets
• Parents as Support brokers
• Impact of Personal Budgets on current block
contracts and in house provision
• Senior leadership and council corporate support
Personal Budgets – Next steps & key
Challenges
• Case study: personal budget across social care,
health and education-creating framework to support
• Integration with single assessment / plan process
• April 2013 full implementation social care/short
breaks personal budget option
• RAS notional budgets in place for all children open to
ACN Social work team – with full costing of current
services accessed
• Further develop the market to include wider choice of
preferred providers and brokers
Thank You
• Julie.hawkins@oldham.gov.uk
• Tel: 0161 770 3126 or 3110