What is a personal health budget?

‘A personal health budget is an amount of money to support a person’s identified health and wellbeing needs, planned and agreed between the person and their local NHS team.’

The aims of personal health budgets are:

To give people greater choice, flexibility and control over the health care and support they receive.

An opportunity for people to work in equal partnership with the NHS about how their health and wellbeing needs can best be met.

Personal health budgets are not new money given by the NHS. They use existing resources that people already receive but in a different way. For example, if you (or someone you care for) has care and support at home through a home care provider, you may prefer a personal health budget instead, so you can employ your own personal assistants. This gives you greater control over who comes into your home.

Here are some more examples of how people have used their personal health budget:

Kelly had been a mental health inpatient for 18 months before she received her personal health budget. She wanted to live in her community but felt anxious at the thought of living alone. She bought a dog and used her personal health budget to pay for food and vet’s bills. Whenever she goes out, she takes Barney with her. He gives her the confidence to go to the park and meet other dog walkers. When she’s at home she feels safe because Barney is with her.

Billy had a stroke when he was 54. His personalised care and support plan described how he wanted to become more active in order to improve his strength and overall health and wellbeing. He was offered a personal health budget which enabled him to join a local gym. He now exercises 4 evenings per week and feels better than he has in years!

Read more about personal health budgets here.