A personal budget gives a family or young person control over funding for support for a child or young person with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability. It enables parents of the young person to choose their support and provides increased flexibility to decide what works best for them. The budget can be used in conjunction with other provision or support.
Personal budget funding streams
There are 3 funding streams for a personal budget: education, health and social care.
Education funding
The personal education budget will usually be part of or all of the 'high needs block' which is awarded through an Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to provide support at a level that is additional to or beyond what an educational setting is normally expected to provide to meet SEN. A personal education budget has to be arranged with the agreement of the educational setting the child or young person attends.
Health funding
Since April 2014 children and young people who are eligible to support through 'Continuing Healthcare' funding have had the 'right to ask' for a personal health budget. From October 2014 this becomes a 'right to have' a budget. This is currently only available to a very small number of children.
Social care funding
Personal budgets will continue to be available for children with social care and are offered to all young social who are social for social care support when they become adults at eighteen years old.
Personal education budgets
The following personal education budgets are available in York from September 2014:
- personal budgets for transport
- personal SEN budgets where the child or young person's complex needs cannot be met through what is currently available through the Local Offer. Initially, this is likely to be a very small number of children and young people
Please see our directory of York schools.
For further information about Personal Budgets in York, download the personal budgets guidance document.