Amid a continuing drive at for wholescale redesign of health services, another more subtle shift is taking place, to ensure that for a subset of people for whom traditional healthcare services don’t work, more personalised approaches become the norm.

Personal health budgets, or PHBs, have been described as a “breath of fresh air”.

I’ve heard people talk about personal health budgets as an attempt at privatisation, but that’s certainly not how I see it. For me this is a very real and exciting opportunity for individuals and their families to design healthcare approaches that genuinely take into account their needs and desired outcomes, in a holistic sense.

Personal health budgets are not about new money, but using existing money differently to meet people’s needs. At the centre of the budget is the care and support plan. This plan and the budget are then signed off by the individual’s NHS team, and regularly reviewed.

Read Joyce Bowler’s blog in full on the Personal Health Budget section.