Personal budgets and the SEND
Reforms
Nic Crosby
Director Children and young people
Burning issues….
What’s concerning you about personal budgets?
What have you heard that worries you?
Why personal budgets and personalisation?
Flexible and creative! Outcomes focused
what would it take?
to
have more good days?
What is a personal budget?
9.95
A Personal Budget is an amount of money identified by the
local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan where the
parent or young person is involved in securing that provision
Further………
• A personal budget is a sum of funding available for young people
where it is clear that they need additional provision, compared to
that available to most young people through local services.
• It is not the sum total of all the resources that are available to
support a young person and the EHC Plan does not need to list all
the costs associated with supporting a young person. Rather, it
should provide a detailed explanation of how a personal budget will
be used to deliver agreed provision, the needs and outcomes it will
meet, and explain how the money will be used, spent and managed
including arrangements in relation to any direct payments
Clarification
Health
provision
Personal
budget
Base
funding
Notional
SEN budget
Social care
provision
School/college budget
High Needs
Block
If agreed
with
school /
college
Managing a Personal Budget
• Managed by the local authority ‘an organised
service’
• Managed by a provider / VCS on the family’s
behalf ‘an individual service fund’
• Managed by the family as a ‘direct payment’
• A mix of these three options
Indicative funding
9.102 The child’s parent or the young person should be given
an indication of the level of funding that is likely to be
required to make the provision specified, or proposed to be
specified in the EHC plan.
An indicative figure can be identified through a resource allocation or banded funding
system. As part of a person-centred approach to the development of the EHC plan, the
local authority should agree the provision to be made in the plan and help the parent
or young person to decide whether they want to take up a Personal Budget. Local
authorities should be clear that any figure discussed at this stage is indicative and is a
tool to support the planning process including the development of the draft EHC plan.
The final allocation of funding budget must be sufficient to secure the agreed
provision specified in the EHC plan and must be set out as part of that provision.
9.102 Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities 2014
“…if you are open and honest us about what
funding is available then maybe we can start to
work together, we might not like what you are
telling us but at least you are being honest and we
may start to trust what you are telling us…..but if
you continue to withhold information, make
decisions behind closed doors and not give us the
information we need to make good decisions about
support for our sons and daughters how can we
ever trust what you say”
Lara Roberts, parent of a young man who has had an individual
budget for over two years
Families need to be able
to make informed
decisions
To do this they need to
understand what
provision is possibly
available to support
their son or daughter
This means being able
to provide an indicative
allocation of funding
which they could then
request as a personal
budget
The Local Offer and Personal Budgets
9.96 Local authorities must provide information
on Personal Budgets as part of the Local Offer.
This should include a policy on Personal Budgets
that sets out a description of the services across
education, health and social care that currently
lend themselves to the use of Personal Budgets,
how that funding will be made available, and
clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria
and the decision-making processes
what would it take?
to
have more good days?
Aligning and integrating funding
9.111
Local authority commissioners and their
partners should seek to align funding streams for
inclusion in Personal Budgets and are encouraged
to establish arrangements that will allow the
development of a single integrated fund from which
a single Personal Budget, covering all three areas of
additional and individual support, can be made
available. EHC plans can then set out how this
budget is to be used including the provision to be
secured, the outcomes it will deliver and how
health, education and social care needs will be met.
Nic Crosby
07854 331 487
nic.crosby@in-control.org.uk