NHS England provides an ongoing programme of support for professionals who are involved in the delivery of personal health budgets.

This programme supports the NHS Long Term Plan commitment and Universal Personalised Care ambition for 200,000 people to have a personal health budget by 2023/24.

This programme also supports Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to meet their responsibilities regarding the legal rights to have personal health budgets. These rights apply to people who are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, children and young people eligible for continuing care, to people who are eligible for section 117 aftercare, and to people eligible for NHS wheelchairs (who have the right to a personal wheelchair budget).

Drawing on evidence, learning and best practice from the delivery of personal health budgets so far support includes:

• regular webinars
• tailored support and mentoring opportunities for commissioners and providers developing personal health budgets for learning disabilities, autism and in mental health services
• access to national communities of practice
• bespoke advice, support and mentoring opportunities for wheelchair service managers and commissioners on personal wheelchair budgets
• policy and best practice advice
• regionally tailored support and advice
• training resources, guidance and templates
• access to the Personalised Care Collaborative Network and discussion forum – a members only space for those working within the NHS, a local authority, or a voluntary sector partner

To find out more about the support available, email england.personalhealthbudgets@nhs.net.

Published guidance

Guidance published by NHS England provides information and advice for integrated care boards on meeting their duty to provide personal health budgets for eligible groups of people and implementation of the NHS’ direct payment regulations:

• Personal health budgets: Options for managing the money explains the difference between the three options for managing personal health budgets: what each one means for the person and the commissioner. Integrated care boards must ensure that the three options for managing a personal health budget are available.
• Guidance on the legal rights to have personal health budgets and personal wheelchair budgets
• Guidance on direct payments for healthcare: Understanding the regulations
• The Personal health budget quality framework sets the quality standards for personal health budget delivery and supports integrated care boards to create the conditions to meet personal health budget performance expectations, with a focus on improving operational delivery to:
  • • deliver high quality care
    • improve the experience of personal health budget holders
    • realise the ‘life changing’ outcomes that personal health budgets can deliver
    • develop workforce confidence in commissioning and delivering personal health budgets
    • ensure value for money
• Delegation of healthcare tasks to personal assistants supports practitioners and integrated care boards to understand the decision-making process involved in delegation of healthcare tasks from registered practitioners to personal assistants, establish clear protocols for ensuring safe and appropriate delegation and clarifies responsibilities and lines of accountability for all involved.
• Personal health budgets mandatory data collection guidance provides guidance for all integrated care boards (ICBs) in England regarding the completion of the mandatory personal health budgets data collection implemented on a quarterly basis from July 2018 onwards. This data is being collected by NHS England (formerly NHS Digital).

Data collection and guidance

NHS Digital collects quarterly data on personal health budgets from ICBs, which is used as a measure for the NHS System Oversight Framework. For more information visit the NHS Digital website.

All about personal health budgets: Easy Read

Our easy read guide includes information on what a personal health budget is, who can have one, what they can be used for and how some people have used them. This guide is aimed at people, families and carers that receive or know someone who receives/has a personal health budget. It can also be used by health and care staff that offer and support people to get a personal health budget.