Three research units are working together to evaluate the pilot programme. They are the Personal Social Services Research Unit, the Social Care Workforce Research Unit and the Social Policy Research Unit. Together they form the Individual Budgets Evaluation Network (IBSEN).

Now that the pilot has been completed, we are expecting to receive IBSEN's final evaluation report in Spring 2008.

It is important that the pilot programme is independently evaluated to check how individual budgets work for the people who get them, and everyone else involved. What we learn from the evaluation will be important when it comes to assisting all local authorities in England transform their care services under the Putting People First initiative.

What will the evaluation be looking for?

The evaluation project will see whether individual budgets offer a better way of supporting disabled adults and older people than the ways things work at the moment. It will also say what 'models' work best for different people.

The research will look at 5 main things:

• Experiences and outcomes for people who get them, and their families - did people find it a better way of doing things and did it give them better support?
  
• Does it cost more, or less, and does it give better or worse value for money?
  
• What it means for the 'social care system' as a whole including the organisations who provide services
  
• What people choose to buy with their individual budgets - and how they decide this, how the services and support gets organised and who manages this
  
• What it means for the workforce, in terms of financial management, legal and professional issues.

Early findings

IBSEN has published early findings based on interviews conducted between July and November 2006. Their summary paper reports on four aspects of individual budgets including the first phases of implementation, training and development, cost of setting up individual budgets, and early experiences and views from the first recipients.

Download their summary paper here or visit the IBSEN website.

If you would like to know more, please read the Leaflet about the evaluation

Copyright CSIP 2006