TLAP welcomes Personal Health Budgets Pilot evaluation report

The independent evaluation of the government's three year personal health budgets pilot has been published. Overall, the results of the evaluation support the rollout of personal health budgets beyond the pilot programme.

Think Local Act Personal co-chairs Sue Bott and Bill Davidson say:

"It's great to see that people's quality of life and well being is improving significantly with personal health budgets and that they are clearly cost effective. We also welcome the positive impact on family carers. It's obvious from the evaluation that the best results are achieved when personal budgets are implemented using the principles of self-directed support - when people know how much money is available to them at the start, have the flexibility to choose the services they want and can manage the money in a way that suits them best. This mirrors our experiences of personal budgets in social care, particularly highlighted in the personal budgets outcome and evaluation survey last year (POET). As personal health budgets are now rolled out, it is important to make strong links across health and social care, to help to achieve integration of support at the level of the individual . TLAP aim to support this joint approach through work with its partners and with health bodies."

A good practice toolkit that will help with the roll out of personal health budgets has also been launched. It brings together the learning from the pilot programme and will be useful to Primary Care Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and other health and social care organisations. The toolkit includes eight new stories on film, including interviews with people who have personal health budgets and healthcare professionals.