Once any help and support have been agreed through an assessment process, a budget value is then approved by Rutland County Council and/or the health service to provide this. This fund is known as a personal budget. A personal budget is different for each child or young person. The positive changes or outcomes expected as a result of the support will be written in a person’s Education, Health and Care Plan or a Social Care Child in Need / Care Plan. A personal budget may also be used to access the Aiming High Short Break Scheme. The scheme aims to help build children and young people’s confidence, independence and social skills whilst also giving parent/carers quality time to do other things.
A notional budget or commissioned service is when the local authority and/or health service hold the funds and buy the support or services. This is the case for most children and young people. It may be possible to give information about the amount of funding available being used to buy the agreed support.
A direct payment is money paid to the family to buy and manage the support that is agreed and is usually provided on a pre-paid card.
A third party managed arrangement can be put in place so that an organisation or a person chosen by the family are given the money and help the family to manage it. The money is paid directly to the third party who takes responsibility for looking after it but the family is still responsible for the correct use of the money.
Personal Budgets may be used to secure the agreed support or services for your child. However, not all children and young people will be allocated individual amounts of funding for each intervention, support or provision as it may not always be possible to identify an amount of money that applies to a single individual for a specific service. In many cases, support will be provided as part of a larger budget or contract which cannot be separated out. For example, large contracts for such services such as Speech and Language (SALT) may be in place with the NHS, a school or college.
Even where funding can be identified, it may not always be possible to provide this as a Direct Payment without having a negative effect on the ability of those services to support other children and young people with SEND. This may be where a large agreement is in place with a service provider to gain best value for money for a number of children.
Please read the guide to personal budgets for more information and to help you decide if you would like to request one.