Personal Budgets for Children with Education Health and Care Plans

What is a Personal Budget?

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. Tameside has a policy document which explains about Personal Budgets Here: Personal-Budgets-Policy-for-EHCP.pdf (tameside.gov.uk) this includes information on eligibility and the types of things a personal budget can and cannot be used for.

Who can have one?

The child’s parent or the young person has a right to request a Personal Budget, when the local authority has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed that it will prepare an EHC plan. They may also request a Personal Budget during a statutory review of an existing EHC plan.

How much is it?

Local authorities must identify those areas of spending which are deemed “personal budgets” and the parents of children or young people themselves must be given the opportunity to influence how this funding is used or, in some cases, actually control the receipt and spending of cash.

What is in it?

The personal budget can include funding from education, health and social care sources
Parents should be given three options for the control of their budget, or a combination of the three:

Notional arrangements – where the authority retains the funds but the parent/young person directs its usage;
Third party arrangements – where funds are paid to an individual or another organisation on behalf of the parent/young person and they manage the funds;
Direct Payments – where individuals receive the cash to purchase services themselves.

Find out more or request a budget

Please contact your SEN Caseworker for more information, or email the SEN team on: senteam@tameside.gov.uk

How is Tameside promoting personal budgets?

Tameside is ensuring that people are aware of the right to a personal budget in four key ways:

Having a clear and accessible Personal Budget Policy published on the local offer
Ensuring that every EHCP when published in draft to families clearly identifies the right to request a personal budget.
Ensuring that Caseworkers identify the right for a personal budget in their meeting with families and young people following the decision to issue a plan.
Ensuring annual review documentation makes clear the right of families to request a personal budget

Further information

More information on personal budgets for Education Health and Care Plans can be found in the policy here: Personal-Budgets-Policy-for-EHCP.pdf (tameside.gov.uk)

If you are eligible for home to school transport you can request a personal transport budget. More information can be found in the policy here: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/TamesideMBC/media/Children/Personal-Transport-Budget.pdf

and more information on home to school transport generally can be found here https://www.tameside.gov.uk/education/transport/5-16policy
Home to School Transport Policy (for students aged 5 to 16) (tameside.gov.uk)

Personal Social Care Budgets

For more information on social care budgets please use this link: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/localoffer/personalbudgets/socialcare