You may have already requested or been asked to undergo a formal assessment by Education, Social Care or Health. Depending on the outcome of your assessment and any help and support that has been agreed through the assessment process, a budget value is then approved by Solihull Council (SMBC) and/or the Integrated Care Board (ICB - Health) to provide this. This fund is known as a personal budget. A direct payment is one method of you managing the money allocated to you as a personal budget.
A personal budget is different for each child or young person. The positive changes or outcomes expected as a result of the support will be written in your Education, Health and Care Plan or a Social Care Child in Need / Care Plan (Health). Your personal budget must be used to support you in achieving these outcomes and the impact of the personal budget on these outcomes will be monitored on a regular basis.
As you move into adulthood there will be a period of transition where the services you receive move from children’s services to adult’s services, but the people you deal with in education services may remain the same. At this point, you will become the decision maker about your care and support and our services make assessments under different frameworks. Don’t worry, we can support you through this.
Services in Solihull currently administer and approve personal budgets individually. They all have support mechanisms in place to help you through the process of requesting and managing a personal budget.
Here are some useful links to advice: