Starting this month and taking place throughout autumn/winter 2016, the national Personal Health Budgets Delivery Team are offering a series of half day courses, Personal Health Budgets Essentials, aimed at health and social care professionals and covering the fundamentals of personal health budgets.

There are national ambitions to support more people to benefit from greater choice and control through personal health budgets, with the Government’s Mandate to the NHS for 2016/17 setting out a clear expectation that by 2020, 50-100,000 people will have a personal health budget, or a personal budget combining NHS and social care funding.

The courses are being held at a range of locations across the country, and will support professionals who are either new to personal health budgets, or who require a refresher, to:

• Understand the policy and mandate requirements around personal health budgets
• Have an opportunity to explore some case studies and hear examples of good practice in delivering personal health budgets
• Recognise the need for good support planning in personal health budget delivery
• Understand the basics of setting budgets and managing money, particularly for those people eligible for Continuing Healthcare (CHC).

To find a course in your area, go to the NHS England events page where you can book a session directly. Please note that these sessions are only available for professionals working in the NHS or local government.