What is a Personal Budget?
A Personal Budget for SEND is money identified to pay for support specified in an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) for a child or young person with special educational needs.
SEND Personal Budgets are designed to assist in providing more individualised and specialist support for children and young people and allow for more choice and control for families in how their educational support will work, with the agreement of the educational setting and the Statutory Special Educational Needs Service.
There are four ways a Personal Budget could be managed:
- Receive as a direct payment: using the money to buy services directly yourself, or through a nominated person.
- Managed by the Local Authority or the Clinical Commissioning Group: who will organise the support/services.
- Managed by a third party: such as a school or voluntary service.
- Or a combination of the above.
It is not additional funding, rather a way for families to spend existing ‘top-up’ funding allocated as part of the EHC plan. It can be linked to existing Direct Payments/Personal Health Budgets allocated under Social Care or Health to form an ‘individual’ Personal Budget and set up an individual package of provision.
You can find more information about Personal Budgets on the SEND Partnership Service site, including an easy read description of personal budgets.
Who can request a Personal Budget?
Parent Carers and Young People (from the age of 16, who have mental capacity) have the right to request a Personal Budget once the child or young person has been assessed as requiring an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Where can I access a SEND Personal Budget?
Personal Budgets for SEND are available from the Local Authority only through the statutory Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment process. An offer of an indicative Personal Budget figure can be provided on request at the draft EHC plan stage.
How can I request a Personal Budget?
If your child (or a young person over 16) would like to request or find out more about Personal Budgets as part of your Education, Health and Care Plan, please contact your SEND Practitioner directly.
Contact Details
For information on the process the main contact within the SEN Team is the allocated SEND Practitioner or:
SEN_Admin@bathnes.gov.uk
Tel: 01225 394306