DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 21 October 2008
Individual budgets
can give people more choice, flexibility and control over their
personal care, as well as a better quality of life, according to a
pilot scheme evaluation report launched today by Care Services
Minister Phil Hope.
The independent evaluation was conducted by a combined team of
five university research units. It found that individual budgets
had particular benefits for mental health service users and
younger disabled people. While there were no important differences
in overall cost (IBs cost on average about £280 compared with £300
for standard mainstream services), there were indications that
individual budgets have the potential to offer greater value for money.
Individual budgets give people who have care needs the power to
decide the nature of their own support and the report showed that
most groups liked this. People can choose to use the money to fund
the care that suits them best and fits in with their lifestyle -
for example by having someone support them at home rather than
going into residential care.
Mental health service users in the individual budget group
reported a significantly higher quality of life. Younger
physically disabled people were more likely to report higher
quality of care, and were more satisfied with the help they
received, the choice and control they experienced and felt they
had the opportunity to build better quality support networks.
People with learning disabilities were more likely to feel that
they had control over their daily lives.
However, the report found that older people did not find the
individual budget system used during the pilot as easy to use as
the other groups, and they did not appear to like the idea of
managing their own support.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said:
"Individual budgets can put people back in control of their
own care, and give them a better quality of life. This report is
invaluable in helping us understand the benefits of individual
budgets, as well as the action we need to take so that everyone
can benefit from them.
"Since this research was undertaken more support has been
put in place for older people and early indicators have shown that
this has transformed their experiences of using individual
budgets. We will conduct further research to investigate the
impacts further. We must also get better at letting people know
that they don't have to take on management of the budget themselves.
This is a very complex area. We will work to address the
recommendations of this report, to make greater choice and control
a reality for many more people."
The results of this research will feed into work to introduce
pilots of personal budgets for healthcare from 2009, as announced
in the NHS Next Stage Review.
As part of the Department of Health's plan to transform
social care, the Department announced in late 2007 it would
empower people to shape their own lives and the services they
receive through personal budgets.
Notes to Editors
1.The "Evaluation of the Individual Budget Pilot
Projects" report is independent, written by a combined team
from The University of York's Social Policy Research Unit,
Kings College London's Social Care Workforce Research Unit
and the Personal Social Services Research Unit of Manchester
University, LSE and the University of Kent. They are collectively
called The Individual Budgets Evaluation Network (IBSEN). The
report can be found at the Department of Health website http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Socialcarereform/Personalisation/index.htm
2.The report is an evaluation of the pilot scheme conducted over
two years, 2006-2007. It involved a survey of 959 people including
disabled groups, older people and young people in transition to adulthood.
3.Further research on the impact of individual budgets on carers
will be published in due course. Early findings from the research
suggest that at least some carers of older people may experience
considerable benefits from the flexibility offered by IB's.
4.The aim of Individual Budgets is to give individuals the power
to decide the nature of their own support. An IB brings together
resources from different funding streams into a single sum that
can be spent flexibly in accordance with their needs and
preferences. They can either have the money paid to them directly
and then make their own arrangements to meet their needs, or ask
the Council to provide services, or a mixture of both.
5.The Individual Budgets project was commissioned by the
Department of Health in partnership with the Department for Work
and Pensions and Department for Communities and Local Government
(CLG). The Supporting People programme, one of the six funding
streams included in the IB pilots and managed by CLG , was
identified by the IB managers as one of the most flexible of the
funding streams. It is possible for a majority of Local
Authorities to deliver IBs which include SP within the terms of
the existing Grant Conditions - a number of non pilot authorities
are starting to develop processes to do so.
6.'Putting People First' - a vision for the
transformation of social care - was launched alongside a £520
million Social Care Reform grant in Dec 2007. It set out the need
to empower citizens to shape their own lives and the services they
receive. This included giving the vast majority of people who
receive funded care their own personal budgets.
7.High Quality Care for All, the final report of the NHS Next
Stage Review led by Lord Darzi, announced that the Government
would explore the potential of personal budgets in healthcare, to
give NHS patients greater control over the services they receive.
The Government will introduce a pilot programme in early 2009,
learning from the experience of individual budgets in social care
and from other health systems. The programme will be designed with
NHS, local authority, care and patient group partners, with clear
rules - for example to ensure that it fully supports the
principles of the NHS as a comprehensive service, free at the
point of use.