Personal Budgets

This information is about personal budgets for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN).

What is a Personal Budget?

A Personal Budget for SEN is money identified to pay for support specified in an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) for a child or young person with special educational needs. It can include funds from the local authority for education and social care and from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for health. 

There are four ways you can use a personal budget:

  • Sometimes the local authority, school or college will look after the Personal Budget for you. This is called an Arrangement or a Notional Budget.
  • Sometimes you can receive money directly to manage all or part of the Personal Budget yourself. This is called a Direct Payment.
  • Sometimes you can opt to have someone else to manage the Personal Budget for you. This is called a Third Party Arrangement.
  • Sometimes you can have a mixture of some or all of these arrangements.

Who can have a Personal Budget?

Parents of a child with an EHC plan, or a young person (16-25) with an EHC plan, can request a Personal Budget either during the drafting of an EHC plan or once the plan has been issued and is under review.

You do not need to have an EHC plan to get Personal Budgets for social and health care, but once you have an EHC plan, or one is being prepared, you can request budgets for all three areas of support. You must have an EHC plan to get a Personal Budget for special educational provision.

However, you do not have to have a Personal Budget.

The SEND Code of Practice says:

Local authorities must provide information on Personal Budgets as part of the Local Offer. This should include a policy on Personal Budgets that sets out a description of the services across education, health and social care that currently lend themselves to the use of Personal Budgets, how that funding will be made available, and clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria and the decision-making processes. (9.96)

You can see the Rotherham Local Authority policy on Personal Budgets on https://www.rotherhamsendlocaloffer.org.uk/

A young person with an EHC plan can ask for their own Personal Budget after the end of the school year in which they become 16.

Sometimes the local authority or the health authority may not agree to a Personal Budget. If the local authority refuses a personal budget for special educational provision, it must tell you why. You cannot appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal over this refusal.

What can a Personal Budget be used for?

Personal Budgets can be used only to fund the support set out in an EHC plan. This must be agreed by the local authority for education and care support, and by the health authority for the health provision.

You can find out what can be included in a Personal Budget in the Local Offer. You can also ask The Rotherham SEN Service or the Rotherham SENDIASS for more information about this.

A Personal Budget for educational provision cannot cover payment for a place at the school or college. A Personal Budget can include any top up funding (known as Element 3 funding). It can also include support that is managed by the school or college – but only if the Headteacher or Principal agree.

You can find out more about what can be included in a Personal Budget in Sections 9.110 to 9.118 of the SEND Code of Practice.