What is a personal health budget?
A personal health budget is one of the ways a clinical commissioning group provides care to people. PHBs are designed to involve the person receiving care (or their representative) in the decision making process, and to offer freedom in choosing the care that’s right for them, whether that’s residential care, live-in care or domiciliary care.
What are the types of personal health budget?
Personal health budgets are available in a few different forms – a direct payment (where you’ll be given the funds to arrange and manage care), a notional budget (where the NHS will fund support agreed with you), a third party budget (where the budget and care arrangements are handled by an independent organisation).
Who is eligible for a personal health budget?
Personal health budgets are typically available for people who qualify for NHS continuing healthcare (CHC). If you or a dependent has qualified for CHC, you can ask to receive a personal health budget or another form of care package.
How much is a personal health budget?
The amount you’ll receive in a personal health budget will be determined by the cost of the services agreed by you and the CCG, and is needs-based rather than means-tested. They should be adequate to provide the agreed services.
How do you get a personal health budget?
The first thing to do would be to speak to a GP, who will be able to refer you to a board of experts called a multidisciplinary team (MDT). The MDT will consult a CHC eligibility framework to assess the severity and complexity of the healthcare need. Depending on the outcome, the case is then referred to the local clinical commissioning group, who will then offer a choice between a CCG-managed care package or the varieties of personal health budget listed above.
How can I spend my personal health budget?
If you’ve been awarded direct payments for your personal health budget, you’ll be given the funding you should need to arrange the agreed care. You’ll need to be able to show evidence that you’re spending the funds in the agreed way. If you’re paying less than the budget allows for, you may need to give the difference back to the CCG or alternatively it will be put towards your next allocation.
If you’ve got a personal health budget for live-in care, speak to a Care Advisor today to find out how we can help.
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Dr Jamie Wilson is hometouch’s founder and Chief Medical Officer. Jamie’s creation of hometouch was inspired by his work as a dementia psychiatrist in the NHS, and he has written about healthcare issues in The Times and the Evening Standard. Jamie has a MBBS from the University of Leeds and has spent a decade in the NHS, working as a Psychiatric Registrar and Memory Specialist at Imperial College Hospital.
