Personal budgets and personal health budgets

What is a personal budget?

Money that is allocated by a local council to pay for care or support to meet assessed needs. The money comes solely from adult social care. An individual can take a personal budget as a direct payment, or choose to leave the council to arrange services (sometimes known as a managed budget) - or a combination of the two.

An alternative is an individual service fund, which is a personal budget that a care provider manages on a person's behalf.

Personal Health Budgets

An amount of money to pay for specific health needs, given to people who are not in hospital but have complex ongoing healthcare needs. They can be managed by the person in receipt of care or by the NHS. It is based on the individual care plan, which sets out health goals and how the budget will help reach them. The money can be spent on things like therapies, personal care and equipment. It cannot be used to pay for emergency care or care usually provided by a family doctor. Using a personal health budget is a choice and not obligatory.