Personal Health Budgets

Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb has announced that personal health budgets will be rolled out. A personal health budget is an amount of money given to someone, to help them design a package of care support from clinicians and others,
giving them more control over the nature of the treatment provided.

Personal health budgets have been piloted at 20 in-depth sites for the last three years, and an independent evaluation of the pilot programme published has found that:

• people's quality of life had improved

• if half of the people eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare chose to take the offer of a budget, this could imply a potential saving of around £90 million

• the amount of times people had to attend hospital decreased overall.

The benefits seemed to be felt more strongly by people with the highest health needs. As a result, the rollout will initially target those who are currently getting NHS Continuing Healthcare. By April 2014 up to 56,000 people on the NHS Continuing Healthcare scheme will have the right to ask for a personal health budget. It is also hoped that clinical commissioning
groups will offer a personal health budget to more people with a long-term condition who may benefit.

Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb said: "Independent analysis has now shown that personal health budgets can put people back in control of their care and make a significant difference to their quality of life. It's inspiring to hear the human stories of success that these budgets have brought to people. "The evaluation shows that those with the greatest needs benefit most from personal health budgets. That's why we are giving people on NHS continuing healthcare the chance to get one first. And, I hope more people who could benefit will be given the option of one."