Personal Budgets

A personal budget gives you more choice and control over the support you need

Personal budgets are a key aspect of the Personalisation agenda, which is an initiative designed to give you greater control over which services you choose to meet your needs.

Personal budgets recognise that the person best able to understand your support needs is you. They mean that people receiving support (whether provided by statutory services or funded by themselves) have more choice and control over the shape and delivery of that support.

Wirral has been trialling personal budgets since January 2009, involving a group of people of different ages with varying support needs; some receive traditional services, some do not. People taking part in the trial have been deciding what their care needs are, what they want to achieve, and are told how much money is available to spend, and given support to decide how best to spend that money, and have choice and control over their support.

Some people choose to use their personal budget to employ personal assistants to help them with their care and support, some choose to buy their care, or other services from agencies and or voluntary organisations. If people are unsure of how to plan or manage a personal budget they receive help and support to enable them to do so.