A personal budget is an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan. The parent or young person is involved in securing that provision. Personal budgets are optional for the child’s parent or the young person.
Local authorities have a duty to prepare a budget when requested. The child’s parent or the young person has a right to request a personal budget, when the local authority has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed that it will prepare an EHC plan. They may also request a Personal Budget during a statutory review of an existing EHC plan.
Local authorities must consider each request for a personal budget on its own individual merits. If a local authority is unable to identify a sum of money they should inform the child’s parent or young person of the reasons. For example, the local authority might agree that the provision is needed but may be unable, at that point in time, to disaggregate funding that is currently supporting provision of services to a number of children and young people.
Each Local Authority are required to develop a Policy for Personal Budgets.