Personal health budgets

A personal health budget (PHB) is an agreed amount of money that can be spent on meeting someone’s assessed ongoing health and wellbeing needs.

A personal health budget allows you to work closely with a healthcare professional to prioritise the care needs that are important to you. They support you to create a care and support plan that reflects your health and wellbeing goals.

Many patients and families have said that a personal health budget gives them more flexibility, choice and control over how money is spent on their care and support. They feel more empowered and in control of how they manage their needs. They also feel more involved in planning their care.

How you can receive your personal health budget

There are three different options for managing your personal health budget (PHB).

You can have a direct payment PHB where the money in the budget is paid directly to you, and you can make your own arrangements to purchase the services and the support you need. For example, care, therapies, and equipment.
You can have a third party/managed account PHB. This is where a third party organisation will manage your budget.
You can have a notional PHB. Under this arrangement the continuing health care placements team at the ICB will manage your budget. The team will work with you on what you need and will purchase services on your behalf.

You can also choose to receive your budget as a combination of the three options above.

Who is eligible for personal health budgets?

You have the right to a personal health budget if you are:

An adult getting NHS continuing healthcare
A child getting NHS continuing healthcare
Someone who meets the eligibility criteria of the local wheelchair service
Someone with mental health problems and eligible for section 117 aftercare.

Personal Health Budgets for people eligible for continuing healthcare (CHC)

If you are assessed as being eligible for CHC or children’s continuing care, there are four initial stages in arranging a PHB.

Find out how a Personal Health Budget could work for you

Talk to the NHS team who look after you to find out if you would be eligible for a personal health budget and to find out how PHB’s work for people who receive Continuing Health Care. An important part of organising a PHB is agreeing how the care you receive will benefit your health – your team will talk this through with you.You can talk to our Continuing Health Care Team or to someone from the multi-disciplinary team that carries out the assessment of your health and wellbeing needs. This might be a social worker, community nurse, social worker or other health professional.

Work out the amount of money that may be available

Once your Continuing Health Care funding is confirmed, your PHB team or continuing health care nurse can work out what your PHB would be when they do your three-month review . The amount of money will be based on your health and wellbeing needs and what a conventional package of care would look like. Talk to your continuing health care Nurse if you have any questions or concerns.

Develop a personalised care and support plan

Once you have decided how you would like your PHB to be managed, you will need to develop a personalised care and support plan. Your support planner will work together with you to design a plan that meets your needs and meets NHS funding rules.

Organising care and support

Your PHB will start on an agreed date, once your your care and support plan is approved. You can choose to have your PHB as a direct payment, a third-party managed account, or a notional budget, or a combination of all three as described above.

Make sure the money is working for you

Your continuing healthcare nurse is responsible for making sure the help and support you are receiving is meeting your needs. As your needs change, your PHB may also need to change to make sure it is giving you the most appropriate support and safely meeting your needs. Your eligibility for continuing health care funding will be reviewed regularly.

Personal Health Budgets for people using the Wheelchair Service

If you are a wheelchair user who has been referred to and meets the eligibility criteria of the local wheelchair service you can ask about a Personal Health Budget (PHB) to help pay for your wheelchair and other related equipment.

If you are already registered with the wheelchair service, you will be eligible for PHB when you need a new wheelchair.

Personal Health Budgets for other patient groups

If you are not in a group that has a right to a PHB, but you are interested in receiving one, speak to your Health Care Worker and Integrated Care Board (ICB).

ICBs make the arrangements for Personal Health Budgets and are encouraged to offer them to other patient groups.