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What is an individual budget?
 The main idea behind individual budgets is to put the person who is supported, or given services, in control of deciding what support or services they get.
What do they do?
Individual Budgets:
- Give people a clear, up-front idea about how much money there is for their support.
- Make assessment quicker and easier and mean people have to give out information fewer times.
- Bring together different kinds of support or funding from more than one agency (see 'which income streams are included, below).
- Let people use the money in a way that best suits their own needs and situation.
- Have support to plan what they want and to organise it, from a broker or advocate, family or friends, as the individual wants.
- Not cost the Local Authority any more.
Individual budgets puts people in the centre of the planning process, and recongises they are the person best placed to understand their own needs and how to meet them.
Individual budgets are flexible enough to allow people who are satisfied with existing services to keep these, and also give people a range of options for building up more individually tailored support, using Direct Payments and other routes.
Which income streams were included in the pilot?
- Council-provided Social Care services for adults
- Supporting People funding
- Independent Living Fund
- Disabled Facilities Grant
- Integrated Community Equipment Services
- Access to Work
You can find out more about the income streams here.
You can download a general overview of the Individual Budgets Pilot Programme here.
Copyright CSIP 2006
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