The NHS Confederation have published a 20-page report that examines the views of mental health service users and carers on personal health budgets.
Personal health budgets are defined as the allocation of NHS funding which patients/ service users, after an assessment, are able to personally control and use for the services they choose to support their health needs. It is distinct from a personal budget, which is a similar mechanism already in widespread use by local authorities for social care needs.
The authors conducted focus groups with 58 people and asked a further 104 individuals to respond to a survey.
The main aims of this study were to find out what mental health service users and carers thought about personal health budgets, in particular:
- Their usefulness in meeting people’s needs
- The level of understanding and awareness about them and personalisation more widely
- What support and information people would need if they were to take up a personal health budget
The authors conclude:
It is encouraging that the frustrations expressed by the service users and carers in this study match up to things personal health budgets are intended to improve – listening, control, integration and innovation. This shows that those working to develop personal health budgets have understood the problem correctly.
Yet very few of the people we spoke to thought personal health budgets would be an effective solution if mental health services did not radically change first. In contrast to many, they appear to see personal budgeting as something that has to follow from participatory healthcare, rather than something that allows them to demand it. This conflicts with some of the views we have encountered in our previous studies on this topic.
Personal health budgets: the views of service users and carers (PDF). NHS Confederation Mental Health Network, Aug 2011.
Analysis and information on Direct Payments in London http://benefits.tcell.org.uk/forums/personnel-budgets-direct-payment-london-borough-foi-request also http://benefits.tcell.org.uk/forums/direct-payments
Also of interest http://tcell.org.uk/forums/control-advice-and-self-directed-support
See thread on ‘toothloss‘ article!
Other information can be found at http://www.personalhealthbudgets.dh.gov.uk/ and http://thesmallplaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-transparent-are-personal-budgets.html
NAO report :
Oversight of user choice and provider competition in care markets
Shortcomings must be addressed if value for money is to be secured in the future for users of social care “personal budgets” once they are extended to all eligible users by April 2013.
http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1012/oversight_of_care_market.aspx
Coverage by Community Care http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/08/19/109083/personalisation.htm and http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/08/19/102669/direct-payments-personal-budgets-and-individual-budgets.htm
My analysis (PBDP) looks and reports on a different approach of, obtained through a Freedom of Information request and can be verified by London Councils own data http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/datasharelondon/stats/LSDS/default.htm , the DoH transformation cost of £520million for the UK, £42million in London has seen a poor return given the population in London is about 7.5million people. Is this reflective across the rest of the UK?
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/datasharelondon/stats/LSDS/default.htm
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_128368.pdf
and
http://www.pssru.ac.uk/publications.php , http://www.scie.org.uk/ and http://www.in-control.org.uk/ are some of the national programmes funded by HM Government.
Personalisation – What’s housing got to do with it?
A report by ADASS http://www.adass.org.uk/images/stories/Policy%20Networks/Housing%20Brochure.pdf
http://www.scoop.it/t/personalisation
As you might notice I have a very high interest in personalisation through the collected information and analysis, thought these might be of further interest.
http://benefits.tcell.org.uk/forums/financial-management-personal-budgets
http://benefits.tcell.org.uk/forums/experiences-and-expectations-disabled-people
DoH on Caring for the future http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/2011/09/15/personalisation/
refer webpage http://www.scie.org.uk/news/blogs/lisabostock.asp
Increased personalisation and choice
refer http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/2011/09/15/personalisation/#comment-351
This report presents the findings from a qualitative research study commissioned by the National Audit Office to examine the users’ experiences with personal budgets in adult social care.
Personal budgets only offer users genuine choice and control over their care when they receive the money for their care package directly to spend how they see fit, the research found.
Managed budgets, where the local authority or a third party manages the finances on users’ behalf, do not lead to real choice for users. The research showed users tend not to realise they could exercise choice and control over their care, often continuing as under the previous system without being aware they receive a personal budget.
Users of adult social care services are primarily interested in getting good quality care, rather than focusing on choice per se, but they do not necessarily know what they miss out on by not having choice and control over their care.
Personal budgets, and direct payments in particular, can enable those within the social care system to use their budget in innovative ways, but effective support planning and a well developed market of providers are instrumental in helping them get the most out of their personal budgets.
The research was conducted using a qualitative methodology, including 48 face-to-face depth interviews with people receiving personal budgets and/or their carer, and a further 6 telephone depth interviews with the professional lead on personal budgets in each of the local authorities involved.
http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/publications/1443/Users-of-Social-Care-Personal-Budgets.aspx
You might be interested in the DoH response to:
Thank you for your request of 7 October 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act (2000). Your exact request was:
“Using the FOI Act 2000, could you please advise the budget allowance/transformation costs to personilization for the years, also if you have this information by area (region)
2009/2010
2010/2011
2011/2012”
I am afraid that we are unable to comply with your request without further clarification. There are several possible interpretations of the word personalisation. This could refer to personal health budgets, personalised care planning for long term conditions, social care and direct payments and some areas of the choice agenda.
In order for the Department to answer your request as fully as possible, please specify the area of personalisation to which you refer.
It may help you to know that the national pilot programme for personal health budgets, which began in 2009 and will run until October 2012, has an annual budget of £4million. The cost of implementing personal health budgets is being reviewed as part of the independent evaluation of the pilot programme and the final report is due in October 2012. The third interim report considered pilot set up costs and is available at:
https://www.phbe.org.uk/documents/interim-report-jul-2011.pdf
For people living in London, London Councils statistics can be found under.
This area of the website has been developed to promote access to statistical information about social care and health in London and encourage benchmarking.
There are three main sections in this area of the website. Please click on the relevant link to view more.:
Links to official statistics
London self directed support statistics
London Information Exchange Group
Implementing the Care Funding Calculator in London
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/datasharelondon/stats/default.htm