Personal Health Budgets
A Personal Health Budget is an amount of money to support a person’s identified health and wellbeing needs, planned and agreed between the person and their local NHS team.
The vision for personal health budgets is to enable people with long term conditions and disabilities to have greater choice, flexibility and control over the health care and service they receive.
Personal Health Budgets offer opportunity for people to work in equal partnership with the NHS about how their health and well-being needs can be met.
Find out more information aboutPersonal Health Budgets and how they work.
Direct Payments
Direct Payments are cash payments given to individuals to pay for community care services, which they have been assessed as needing, the intention is to give them greater choice and control in their care services.
The payment must be enough to enable the individual to buy services to meet their needs. The payments must only be spent on the services identified in their support plan.
A Direct Payment gives a responsibility to the person receiving it to employ people, often known as personal assistants, or to buy services for themselves from established care agencies. People can get support in fulfilling these responsibilities from direct payment support officers within the Council.
Direct Payments are available across the UK and to all client groups, including carers, parents of disabled children and people who lack mental capacity, however they cannot be used to purchase long term residential care or services provided directly by the Council.
Find out more about Direct Payments.
Disability Living Allowance
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children may help with the extra costs of looking after a child who:
- is under 16
- has difficulties walking or needs much more looking after than a child of the same age who does not have a disability
The DLA rate is between £23.60 and £151.40 a week and depends on the level of help the child needs
Find out more about Disability Living Allowance (DLA)