Here are some questions we get asked a lot about individual budgets.

What is the difference between personal budgets and individual budgets?

There has been a lot of press coverage that the government is introducing Personal Budgets. This refers to an upfront, transparent allocation of social care funding. This could be managed by councils or another organisation on behalf of individuals should they choose, or paid as a direct payment, or a mixture of both.

The Individual Budgets Pilot is as above, but testing the combination of a number of funding streams to give a more joined up package of support.

The funding streams involved in the pilot are Access to Work, Disabled Facilities Grant, the Independent Living fund, Integrated Community Equipment fund, Supporting People fund as well as social care money. We need to wait for the Evaluation results before further decisions are made about including these income streams more widely.

Are individual budgets the same as direct payments?

Individual budgets build on what works about direct payments and, like direct payments, they are about giving people more choice and control.

A person could get their individual budget as a direct payment. So what are the differences?

Direct payments use only social care money.

Individual budgets includes social care money and a number of other income streams - like community equipment and disabled facilities grants - which are brought together to give the individual a more joined-up package of support.

Direct payments are a cash only payment in lieu of social care services.

Individual budgets give people a choice on how they receive their care package. It can be a cash direct payment, services commissioned by the local authority or broker who manage the budget on an individual's behalf, or a combination of both.

Direct payments and individual budgets both provide more choice, but individual budgets provide a greater breadth of choice. Their flexibility means people are in the centre of the support planning process and it recognises that they are the person best placed to understand their own needs and how to meet them.

Can the implementation of Individual Benefits improve the care system without putting in additional investment?

Individual Budgets are intended to be delivered within local authorities' existing financial envelope. Evidence from the In Control pilots suggests that people can get support that works better for them, using no more resources, if the person and those around can be more involved in designing something that suits them - a person centred planning approach and if the resource can be used more flexibly than it does at the moment. The individual budget pilots will look at this on a larger scale. The question of whether the individual budget approach can be delivered within existing resources will be one of the main questions the evaluation of the pilots will be answering.

We know that changing from one system to another cannot always be done without some investment - the pilot sites have a small amount of money to spend on making their projects happen.

How do individual budgets link up with the Health and Social Care White Paper?

Individual Budgets were an integral part of the adult social care Green Paper Independence, Well-being and Choice. In the consultation that followed the idea of Individual Budgets was responded to positively. They are clearly an important part of the new White Paper which continues the Green Paper's focus on person-centred services to put individuals in control of their support.

Copyright CSIP 2006