Personal health budgets
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Personal health budgets
Personal health budgets can be seen as part of a wider drive to personalise public services, which dates back to the 1970s and the campaign by disability groups for people to be allowed to control their own funding. A pilot involving around half the primary care trusts in England is currently underway, testing out personal health budgets in the NHS.
A personal health budget allows people to have more choice, flexibility and control over the health services and care they receive. At the heart of a personal health budget is a care plan, the agreement between the primary care trust and the individual that sets out the person’s health needs, the amount of money available to meet those needs and how this money will be spent.
This section has news and information about personal health budgets, and links to other websites where you can find out more.
Latest updates
Engagement workshops with smaller health care providers
The DH is running a series of provider engagement workshops in May. As part of these, smaller providers can hear about and discuss what personal health budgets could mean for them.
March 2011 information sheet
Read the latest issue of our information sheet, 'Personal health budgets Update'.
Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS (White Paper)
The NHS White Paper sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of the NHS. This includes using the evaluation results of the personal health budgets pilot programme in 2012 to inform a wider roll-out of personal health budgets
No health without mental health
The cross-Government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages was published on 2 February 2011. The strategy explains that the Government will take steps to extend as much as possible the availability of personal health budgets to people with mental health problems.
Second interim evaluation report about personal health budgets published
The second interim independent evaluation report on the personal health budgets pilot programme has been published by PHBE, the personal health budgets evaluation team led by the personal social services research unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent.
£4 million boost to give patients control of their health care
The personal health budgets pilot programme has been given a £4 million boost by Minister for Care Services Paul Burstow. The money will be used to support personal health budget pilot sites set up and run their pilot schemes.
Paul Burstow's speech to the personal health budgets conference
Minister for Care Services Paul Burstow spoke to pilot sites at the personal health budgets conference on 15 July.
Additional links
Contact us (opens new window)
The personal health budgets team is working with a wide range of people to develop the programme. We want to hear from anyone who would like to share their experiences in this area and get involved. You can get in touch via the mailbox:
Learning network (opens new window)
Visit our online Learning Network for people involved in the pilots, and anyone who is interested in contributing to the development of personal health budgets.
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