Personal Budgets People First Bath and North East Somerset

Personal Budgets Personal Budgets are a new way to provide social care. This should help you to take control of your social care money, manage your support and choose the services that suit you best. You can have more say over what you do and when you do it. There should be more choice about how you are allowed to spend your money. Personal Budgets are being offered now to every adult who is new to Social Services or has a review of their social care needs. They are not offered to people in residential / nursing / extra care.

How are Personal Budgets different? In the past – Social Services did the assessment. They wrote the care plan. People could only have a direct payment or ask Social Services to arrange support for them. Now – You write your support plan. Social Services should NOT rule out something from a Support Plan unless they can show that it will not help someone achieve their goals or it is not safe or legal or long term.

Now after an assessment…. You will be told how much money you can have. You should then have more choice about how you choose to spend that money. You will be asked questions about how easy or difficult it is for you to do some things. You will be asked to make a plan to show how you want to spend the money – this is usually called a support plan. It will be monitored.

These are some examples of Personal Budget choices: You can manage your Personal Budget yourself, employ people to support you and have control. Your family and friends can manage it, but you cannot pay a close family member who lives with you. You can pay expenses for unpaid support. You can buy special equipment. You can choose personal assistants and ask a provider to employ the staff. You can ask for an organisation to arrange all your support. You can ask Social Services to organise your support.

Social Care Support is support that helps you live your life if you need long term help from social services. You will need to work out what support you need. You will then have an assessment with Social Services. Not everyone can have social care.

What is a support plan? A support plan says what you want to do with your life and how you will spend your personal budget to get the life you want. Money can only be spent on what is agreed in your support plan. You can write it, use drawings, voice recordings or any way you want as long as all the information is included. Your plan should be realistic and safe. It should work for the long term.

A support plan is divided into different parts which include:  saying clearly what is important to you and what you would like to achieve  showing how you will use your budget to meet your support needs, who will provide it and when  keeping safe and what happens if things go wrong  a budget support plan that will show the cost of each part of your plan and how you want it to be spent (money or services).

Who can help you with your support plan?  Family and friends  Organisations of disabled people  Care managers or social workers  Independent Support Planners  Support provider Not everyone will want help to do a support plan.

What can I spend my money on? You need to think hard about your goals, be creative but also realistic. You should spend your money on ways to get what your support plan says. You might need to employ someone to support you. You can pay expenses for unpaid support. You can buy special equipment.

What can I spend my money on? You might want to have a break away Do an activity Care in your home Learn to travel independently Some equipment

What can’t I spend my money on? Anything that is against the law or not in your support plan Anything that is normally paid for by the health service

Some different ideas Going to a concert or go swimming Joining a club - to be more independent and make friends in the community Art therapy - to help with times of low moods Gadgets - to keep safe in own home Wii system - to help you get fit Learn to travel around on your own

You can have a new approach to how you get the support you need. You can even join your money together with someone else to get services. For example sharing taxis or using the same personal assistant to go out together.

Don’t forget that some things are free Support from friends Joining organisations of disabled people

Do you have to pay money towards your Personal Budget? You might have to pay some money towards your personal budget, depending on how much money you have. You must pay your contribution into your Personal Budget account.

What if you run out of money? You have to set up a budget to say how you will spend your money. It is a good idea to put money aside for a ‘contingency fund’ - this is in case something unexpected happens so it is a good plan to have some money kept separate. The fund can be used so that you should not run out of money. It should be your choice, your decision and your budget to be used in the way that you want to use it.

What if you need to change your plan or use the money in a different way? The plan has to be reviewed. If you want to make changes you can ask for a review at any time. You will need show how you are spending the money which will be looked at every year. So you must keep records of what you spend and receipts.

To find out more, contact: Tel: This was written with the help of