Personal budget policy for children and young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs and their families

In principle the funding for any of the services mentioned in the EHCP can be transferred into a personal budget.

However, the law, practicalities and value for money concerns place limits on this.

By law the funding of a place at an educational setting cannot be transferred to a personal budget.

Any provision funded by a personal budget to be used or provided in an educational setting must have the permission of that educational setting.

At the current time home to school transport for children with special educational needs or disabilities is provided by a range of different suppliers.

In many cases vehicles and passenger assistants are shared to achieve efficient and effective transport solutions.

Personal Transport Budgets are available to students of all ages with SEND who are eligible for transport and who:

• live within the area where Buckinghamshire is the local council
• have an Education, Health and Care Plan
• attend the school or educational setting outlined in their Education, Health and Care Plan.

Applications for Personal Transport Budgets are made through transport exceptions panels. The decisions around these are made in line with our Home to School Transport policy.

We provide a range of short breaks including community short breaks and residential short breaks to children and young people and their families.

These services are jointly commissioned by the Council and the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) and delivered under a county-wide contract with a provider (Action for Children).

These services are block-purchased on behalf of large numbers of children and young people. We will continue to review the scope of this contract with the aim of adding flexibility so that parts of the funding could be transferred to personal budgets.

For more details on requesting a social care budget please refer to Care Advice Buckinghamshire.

Children’s social care also provide a range of other short breaks to children and families who are assessed as being eligible and these include foster care short breaks, domiciliary care to support community activities, funded childminding and Direct Payments.

We provide social care services in accordance with established criteria through direct payments where applicable and these can form part of a personal budget.

We provide a Direct Payment Advisory Service for adults. This service also supports parent carers receiving Direct Payments.

At special schools in Buckinghamshire healthcare services closely linked to education and delivered in the school are funded from the general resources of the school. The transfer of any of this to a personal budget is at the discretion of the school.

Other healthcare services are provided by the NHS. The transfer of the funding of any of this to a personal health budget will be governed by the Personal Health Budget Policies of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB).

Separate Regulations (the National Health Service (Direct Payments) Regulations 2013) apply to such personal health budgets.

Children and young people eligible for NHS Continuing Care have had the 'right to have' a Personal Health Budget (PHB) to support the individual’s healthcare and wellbeing needs, planned and agreed with the local NHS team.

Currently, for individuals whose care is funded by Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) there are four ways of managing a personal health budget.

1. A direct payment - where funds are paid into a separate bank account managed by the individual or their family.
2. A supported managed account - where the funds are paid directly to a separate organisation that process invoices and any staff payroll on behalf of individuals or their family.
3. A notional budget - where the NHS continues to commission the care that is received by an individual.
4. Individuals are also able to have a mix of the options above.