Personal budgets
Personal budgets are designed to help families have more control over their lives. A personal budget is made up of resources that can be used flexibly to support a child or young person with their education, health and/or care needs, as identified in their care and support plan.
The SEND Code of Practice defines a personal budget as an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver parts of the provision set out in an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Families will be able to request a personal budget as part of the planning process, i.e. when a local authority is drawing up an EHC plan or at the annual review.
Following an assessment of need the "team around me" may decide that additional resources, from one or from multiple sources, are needed in order to meet the outcomes that have been identified in the joint assessment. The local authority or health service traditionally uses this money to purchase services on behalf of the child/young person and their family. However, a personal budget will offer the family more choice and control about the services they receive. The budget will be made clear to parent carers and young people so they can be involved in all decision making in order to choose the right provision to best meet the outcomes identified in their child's EHC plan.
One of the options might be to access some or the entire personal budget through a direct payment and to purchase services themselves on behalf of their child.
Personal Budget Statement (PDF) [152KB]
This page is part of Plymouth's Local Offer.
This page was last updated on 24 June 2019
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