Personal Health Budgets
Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) are a way of offering people more choice, flexibility and control over the care and support they receive from the NHS.
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Our Somerset Offer
Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) are a way of offering people more choice, flexibility and control over the care and support they receive from the NHS. PHBs are provided by freeing up money from existing service contracts in order to provide a sum of money to a person to meet their health care needs in a different way.
Our intention is to extend the availability of PHBs to more people. Personal health budgets will be targeted at people with ongoing and high use of NHS and social care services. At the centre of the PHB is a care plan. This sets out the agreed health and wellbeing outcomes that they want to achieve and how the budget will be spent to help the individual.
We want the offer of a PHB to give people greater choice and control over how care is planned and delivered. Up to 200,000 people nationally will benefit from a PHB by 2023/24. This includes provision of bespoke wheelchairs and community-based packages of personal and domestic support. We are also expanding our offer in mental health services, for people with a learning disability, people receiving social care support and those receiving specialist end of life care.
Who can get a Personal Health Budget?
We will offer PHBs to:
- People eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) or children’s Continuing Care, who already have a right to have a personal health budget
- People with learning disabilities and high support needs eligible for CHC or through s117 Mental Health Act aftercare responsibilities
- People who are in receipt of joint health and social care packages of support
- A personal wheelchair budget for those eligible for NHS funded equipment
If you or a family member are in one of the groups highlighted above and you would like to find out more about PHBs, please speak to your key co-ordinator or the team/person who arranges or reviews your care.
How are Personal Health Budgets managed?
Once a personal care plan has been agreed, the NHS money in a personal health budget can be managed in three different ways:
- Direct payments: The money is transferred directly to the person, and they buy the goods and services agreed in their care plan
- A notional budget: The NHS holds the money, and buys or provides the goods and services the person has chosen
- A budget held by a third-party: An organisation legally independent of the person and the NHS holds the money on their behalf, and buys or provides the goods and services chosen
Who to talk to about getting a Personal Health
If you think you, or someone you care for, may be eligible for a Personal Health Budget, talk to your local NHS team who help you most often with you care – this might be a care manager, or a GP. They will be able to offer help and advice with personal health budgets.
Even if a personal health budget is not appropriate for you, or the person you care for, they will be able to talk through other ways to make sure you, or the person you care for, gets the healthcare and support you need.
