Personal Budgets
Once a child or young person has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) the local authority (LA) must ensure the support set out in the plan is made for them.
Normally, the LA will do this by providing the necessary funding to your child’s school or college for them to deliver the educational support needed, however, it is also possible for the LA to consider making a payment to the parent, the young person, or another nominated person so that you can organise the provision. This is called a direct payment. For you to request a direct payment, the LA must first identify a personal budget.
The purpose of a personal budget or direct payment is to allow you to arrange provision that is specified in Section F of the EHCP.
What is a personal budget?
The personal budget is the notional amount of money that would be needed to cover the cost of making the special educational provision specified in the EHCP. You cannot have a personal budget for education unless you have an EHCP. Information about the availability of personal budgets must be contained in the Local Authority's (LA's) local offer.
Your LA must consider identifying a personal budget for educational provision if you request it when your LA issues a draft EHCP following an Educaiton, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment or when it is reviewing an EHCP . It is not legally required to consider identifying a personal budget for educational provision at other times.
Sometimes, your LA can refuse to identify a personal budget. It may do so when the special educational provision is being provided as part of a larger budget (for example, a contract with the NHS to provide all speech and language therapy or occupational therapy) and the LA can’t separate out or ‘disaggregate’ the personal budget for your child from that overall larger budget.
How can I get a direct payment?
If you do request a personal budget from your LA, you can at the same time ask it to identify which elements or parts of the personal budget you could then receive as a direct payment. This is an actual amount of money that you would receive so that you could commission or arrange the provision in the EHCP. The direct payment must be enough to cover the cost of arranging the provision.
Your LA can refuse to make a direct payment if it thinks the person receiving the payments would not be capable of managing the money, or if it thinks the money would be used in an inappropriate way. It can also refuse to make a direct payment where this would negatively impact other services provided by the LA, or if it would not be an efficient use of resources.
Where the provision proposed to be replaced by a direct payment takes place in a school or college setting, the consent of the head teacher or principal is required. If they do not consent then the LA will be unable to make a direct payment.
If the LA refuses to identify a personal budget or make a direct payment, you cannot appeal against the decision to the SEND Tribunal, but you can ask the LA to review their decision. The LA's complaints process can be used if you believe the LA have incorrectly applied their personal budget policy Make a complaint about a service, policy or member of staff | Cumberland Council
Where can I find out more?
Detailed information about personal budgets and direct payments are contained in Chapter 9 of the:
SEN and Disability Code of Practice.
Personal Budgets and Direct Payments | (IPSEA) Independent Provider of Special Education Advice