There is a four-step process for personal budgets.

The assessment process will depend on your circumstances. People who are having EHC Plans prepared or reviewed will have an EHC Needs Assessment Facilitator to ensure smooth coordination, in other situations this may be someone from health or social care.

The information on this page is intended as a guide to the main steps of setting up a personal budget.

Step 1
Request and consider − As your plan is being put together the person doing your assessment will work with you to look at how best to meet agreed outcomes. This will involve a consideration of the full range of services that are part of the local offer. At this point you may want to consider the pros and cons of a personal budget.

Step 2
Agree which outcomes in the plan are to be met through personal budgets − Here you will agree:

  • Which outcomes are to be met through personal budgets
  • Which outcomes are to be met through personal budgets
  • How much money will be available
  • How the budget or budgets are to be managed, monitored and audited
  • If personal budgets can't be up and running at the point when your plan is signed off, time scales and interim arrangements will be identified.

If any personal budgets that have been requested can't be agreed, you will be given an explanation why and the person doing your assessment will work with you to look at other ways of making your plan personal to your needs.

Step 3
Personal budgets set up − Personal budgets will be set up within agreed timescales and any interim arrangements will be put in place. Where a personal budget is being taken as a Direct Payment arrangements need to be put in place for how this will be managed and monitored. This will involve the family or nominee setting up a bank account. Please refer to Direct Payments handbook for further details.

Step 4
Review and refine − Personal budget arrangements will be reviewed at agreed dates. This is to ensure that personal budgets are being used for the intended purpose. If there are concerns about the way personal budgets are being used, this may also lead to a review. At school leaving age a young person who has the capacity to manage a personal budget, can request that the budget is paid to them.