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Services for Adults on the Isle of Wight

Personal Budgets

This is a new way of funding support and care services for people.

To get a personal budget, the first step is to complete a Shared Assessment Questionnaire. Click here to find out more about this.

Steps to getting a Personal Budget

The diagram below shows the steps you need to follow to get a Personal Budget. It shows what needs to happen and gives a guide as to how long it should take.

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Personal Budget criteria

You can use a personal budget to buy anything that meets your outcomes so long as it is legal and it doesn’t involve gambling. Other things that you will need to think about are:

Does it consider all aspects of your life?
Is it costed correctly?
Does it meet your stated outcomes?
Will you develop as a result of the plan?
Is it specific?
Have things important to you as well as for you been included?

Is it clear who will manage the money and who will be involved in this?
What is your contingency plan and is it suitable?
Is it within budget?
What are the risks to you/to others/from others?
Have you thought about dignity, rights, choice, independence, etc?

Your care manager will need to consider all these points before they can sign off your support plan.

Managing risks

Self Directed Support is a good way for people to have more choice and control in their lives. It helps people (sometimes with support) to think about what their needs are, know what money and support is available to them and make a plan for how to make it happen.

Having choice and control over your life is great. However, it does come with responsibilities, one of which is to think about risk factors. When planning your support and living life day-to-day it is very important to be aware of risks to:

Yourself
To other people
From other people

As part of your support plan, you may want to do things that are considered as a risk. To help both you and your care manager to manage this, a Risk Enablement Panel has been set up. The Panel is designed to be a safe and supportive environment for both you and staff. It aims to find positive solutions and outcomes, ensuring that individuals are not left to make difficult decisions. It is also important in demonstrating that the Council has fulfilled its duty of care.

Managing your money

There are several different ways of managing your money. Below are different options available, you will need to choose the option that best suits you.

Managing it yourself

This is where the money goes straight to you. You must have capacity to understand the nature of your support plan and that your Personal Budget will be used to pay for this. You can be helped to plan your support and manage your budget.

Agent

An agent (paid or unpaid) is someone acting on your behalf and in your best interests. This can be a friend or family member or someone who knows you well.

Care manager

This is where your care manager would be responsible for planning and organising your money and support.

Trust

A Trust is a group of people who will act on your behalf ensuring that plans are in your best interests where you are unable to this for yourself.

Broker or intermediary

This is where you pay an independent broker to manage the money for you.

More information about these options can be found in the Self Directed Support Information Pack.
Your Personal Budget must be paid into a basic bank account with no credit facility. The Council has worked with other organisations to prepare a leaflet giving you further information about basic bank accounts. Click here to see this leaflet.

Employing people

If you are going to employ someone using your Personal Budget, you will have legal responsibilities as an employer. There are also other things that you will need to think about. To find out more about these, see the Self Directed Support Information Pack
(a link is available at the bottom of the page).

Employee or volunteer?
Employment choices
Job roles and descriptions
Recruiting staff
Employment contracts

Criminal Records Bureau checks
Health & Safety
Insurance
Training
Employer’s responsibilities

There are toolkits and document templates available which will help you if you decide to employ a personal assistant.

Click here to see a range of templates that you can use.

Looking at how things are working

Once you have your budget, your care manager will need to check how things are going. They will carry out a 6 week review which will check that your package of care and support is appropriate and able to meet your needs. This is a chance to talk through any concerns you have and receive support or advice to make changes.

When you have been directing your support for 6 months, your care manager will arrange to meet you to check that things are going well. This is called an Outcomes Review’ as it will focus on the outcomes set our in your support plan.

There are lots of tools to help to develop and refine your plan. Click here to see some of them.

Personal Budget Stories

Have a look at what other people have done with their Personal Budgets and the difference it has made to their lives and the people around them. Please click here.

Personal Budgets Appeals Process

To find out more information about the Personal Budgets Appeals Process please click here.

Information Pack

The information in this pack is designed to help you with your self directed support, from whether or not you are eligible for a personal budget through to preparing your plan and getting it agreed.
It also looks at how you manage your money, including hints and tips if you choose to employ someone, through to reviewing how things are going.

Full Version

We have produced an easy read guide to self directed support and Personal Budgets which gives you detailed information.

Click here to see a copy of the easy read Information Pack.

Section Versions

To make things easier we have also broken the Information pack down into its sections to enable quick viewing on a particular area.

Section 1 Eligibility	Section 2 Shared Assessment	Section 3 Support Planning	Section 4 Getting Your Plan Agreed	Section 5 Managing Risk	Section 6 Managing Your Money

Section 7 Employing People	Section 8 Living Life/Review and learn	Section 9 Personal Budgets Examples	Section 10 Where to get Further Information	Section 11 Notes (no information – blank pages)	Section 12 Feedback About This Pack

Page last updated on: 16/01/2012