Government directs councils to supply personal health budgets
pharmafile | November 17, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | big society, government, healthcare, reforms
The government announced this week that it expects local councils to provide personal health budgets to a million eligible people by 2013.
The money will be made available, preferably as a direct payment, to give people more control over the care they receive and to allow their carers to take breaks.
“Personal budgets can make an incredible difference to people’s lives,” says care services minister Paul Burstow. “They give people choice, control and independence.”
The move is presented through the prism of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, the pre-election pledge that people, rather than the state, would have the power to shape services.
But in fact personal budgets were introduced as long ago as 1996 – however, currently just 13% of people who might need one have one.
The Department of Health has also pledged £400 million funding for carers’ breaks over the next four years in its document ‘A vision for adult social care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens’.
The King’s Fund hailed this as “a positive and bold framework” and said extending personal budgets “should inject new urgency into giving people greater choice and control.
“The focus on the needs of carers is especially welcome given the dependence of the current system on their efforts,” says Richard Humphries, senior fellow at the health thinktank.
This is the first of a trio of documents – the next is the report of the Law Commission, followed next summer by the independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support – which will inform the development of a White Paper on social care next year.
But Humphries warned: “The immediate challenge for councils and their NHS partners will be to maintain vital care and support provision by ensuring that the resources identified in the Comprehensive Spending Review get through to front line services.”
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has welcomed the government’s announcement on personal budgets.
“ADASS is clear that further reform is needed to improve outcomes for people and their carers,” says its president Richard Jones.
“We support a shift towards prevention and to enabling and encouraging community-based support,” he concludes.
As part of the desired switch of influence from state to local community, Burstow has also unveiled a new funding programme for charities and social enterprises wishing to get involved in health and social care.
The National Grant Scheme for the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund will make around £3 million available from April 2011 for groups which want to set-up projects.
Adam Hill
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