Personal Health Budgets

What is a personal health budget?

Personal health budgets help people with long-term health conditions manage their care and support in a way that suits them. It helps them to have more choice and flexibility in the way their care and support needs are met – they help people live life with more dignity and independence.

A personal health budget is an amount of money to support an individual’s health and well-being needs and can be used to pay for a wide range of goods and services. Some people have a mixture of funding from both health and social services.

Who can have one?

Any adult or child who is eligible for continuing healthcare has the right to have a Personal Health Budget, if they want one. From April 2015 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be developing their local plans for personal Health Budgets and this could include people with mental health problems, but that will be decided locally.

Some CCGs have started to make personal health budgets more widely available. Get in touch with us or your CCG to find out whether you may be eligible.

Personal health budgets aren’t means tested. They are just like any other health care provision and are free at the point of access.

What is Continuing Healthcare ?

NHS Continuing Healthcare is the name given to a package of care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS for people who are not in hospital but have complex ongoing healthcare needs.

It is for people not able to have all their health needs met through universal and targeted services. To find out whether you are eligible you will need to have your care needs assessed; this is the 1st step towards having a personal health budget. Talk to your social worker or healthcare professional to find out more.

How do I manage a personal health budgets?

Personal health budgets can be managed in exactly the same way as a social care package. For example, you can choose to receive your funding directly as a Direct Payment. However you choose to manage your personal health budget there is plenty of help and support available from us here at Active Independence, or from the NHS continuing health care team:

Tel: 01302 566352
Email: wsybcsu.phb@nhs.net
Link: http://www.personalhealthbudgets.england.nhs.uk/