Jargon Buster - Self-directed support and personal budgets Category

A person who is allowed to request a direct payment from a local council on behalf of someone who requires care and support and has been assessed as lacking capacity to request the direct payment themselves.

The local council must be satisfied that the authorised person will act in the adult’s best interests, that they are capable of managing the direct payment, and that this is an appropriate way to meet the adult’s needs.

Categories

• Decision-making
• People
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Best interests
• Capacity
• Direct payments
• Nominated person

A plan that includes details of a person’s eligible care and support needs and how their needs will be met. It should describe how the planned care and support will help the person to do the things that matter to them, and that they identified in their assessment as being important to their wellbeing. The plan will include a personal budget, which is the amount of money allocated to a person to meet their care and support needs.

The person should be fully involved in planning their care and support, and offered support from an independent advocate if they need it.

Their plan belongs to the person, but their local council will approve the plan to make sure that the care and support will meet the person’s eligible needs and help them live the life they choose to lead.

Categories

• Care and support planning
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Eligible care and support needs
• Independent advocate

A sum of money set aside to fund any unexpected or unplanned spending.

Categories

• Care and support services
• Money
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

A plan that is agreed with a person and/or the people who support them. It says what should happen if there is an emergency or if the person’s usual care and support arrangements stop working suddenly – for example if their carer is unwell or has to go to hospital.

Categories

• Care and support planning
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

The things that people want to achieve in their day-to-day life.

The main purpose of adult social care is to help people to achieve the outcomes that matter to them in their life.

Assessment conversations should focus on people’s desired outcomes, considering the person’s care and support needs, the impact of their needs on their wellbeing, and whether support to meet these needs will help the person to achieve the things that matter to them.

Categories

• Assessment
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Money paid to people (or to someone acting on their behalf) by their local council on a one-off or regular basis, so people can arrange their own support to meet their eligible needs.

The person may choose a direct payment to meet all their needs, or just some of their needs, with their remaining needs met through support arranged by the council or by a third party (usually through an Individual Service Fund (ISF)).

Local councils should give people clear information about direct payments so they can decide whether to ask for a payment, and should support people to use and manage the payment appropriately.

People can request a direct payment during care and support planning, or before or during a review.

Local councils must not force people to take a direct payment if they don’t want to, or place people in a situation where a direct payment is the only way to draw on personalised care and support.

Categories

• Care and support planning
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Personal budget

A rough guide to how much it will cost a local council to meet a person’s care and support needs.

An indicative amount should be shared with the person, and anybody else involved, at the start of care and support planning.

The indicative amount may increase or decrease depending on the decisions made in planning support, but the final, signed-off personal budget must always be sufficient to meet the person’s eligible care and support needs.

Categories

• Care and support planning
• Money
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Eligible care and support needs
• Personal budget

A way of managing a personal budget where the money is held by a ‘third party’ organisation in a managed account. The person remains in control of what the money is spent on, but doesn’t have the responsibility of managing the budget.

Categories

• Money
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Personal budget

A way to use a personal budget where the money is held by an organisation. The organisation arranges care and support for the person in line with their wishes.

A managed account is either held by the local coiuncil or by a third party (often called an Individual Service Fund or ISF).

A managed account is sometimes called a managed budget or a virtual budget.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Managed budget
• Personal budget

A way to use a personal budget where the money is held by an organisation. The organisation arranges care and support for the person in line with their wishes.

A managed budget is either held by the local council or by a third party (often called an Individual Service Fund or ISF).

A managed budget is sometimes called a managed account or a virtual budget.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Managed account
• Personal budget

When a person chooses to use their personal budget in more than one of the following ways: to pay for support arranged by their local council, to pay for support arranged by a third party (usually an individual service fund or ISF), or as a direct payment. This may also be called a mixed package of care.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

When a person chooses to use their personal budget in more than one of the following ways: to pay for support arranged by their local council, to pay for support arranged by a third party (usually an individual service fund or ISF), or as a direct payment.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Someone who agrees to manage a direct payment on behalf of the person who requires care and support.

Local councils should make sure the nominated person is involved in care planning (as long as the person who requires care and support agrees to this), and make sure they have information and advice about using and managing the direct payment.

The nominated person has a legal requirement as the direct payment recipient to act in the best interests of the person requiring care and support.

Categories

• People
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Direct payments

A type of personal health budget. It is the amount of money that is set aside for a person’s care and support. The person does not receive this money but can decide how they want it to be spent to meet their needs. Care and support is then arranged for the person, based on the amount of money that is available and the decisions they make about how to spend it.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

An outcome is something that a person, team, service or organisation would like to achieve or something they want to happen.

The main purpose of adult social care is to help people to achieve the outcomes that matter to them in their life.

Two different types of outcomes are described in the Care Act 2014 guidance.

‘Desired outcomes’ are defined by the person. They are the things people want to achieve in their day-to-day life.

‘Specified outcomes’ are defined by the eligibility regulations. They are the things that local councils must consider to determine whether a person has eligible needs for care and support.

Categories

• Assessment
• Care and support planning
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Desired outcomes
• Eligible care and support needs
• Outcomes-based commissioning
• Specified outcomes

Often called a PA, a personal assistant is someone employed to support a person to live independently and do the things that matter to them.

Personal assistants are employed by the person they support, who may pay them using a direct payment or a personal health budget.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets
• Workforce

Related Jargon

• Direct payments
• Personal budget

The amount of money allocated to a person to meet their care and support needs. Personal budgets were placed into law for the first time by the Care Act 2014 to give people greater choice and control over their care and support.

Everyone whose needs are met by a local council, whether those needs are eligible, or if the council has chosen to meet other needs, must receive a personal budget as part of their care and support plan.

People can choose to use their personal budget to pay for support arranged by their local council, to pay for support arranged by a third party (usually an individual service fund or ISF), or as a direct payment – or a mixture of these options.

The personal budget must always be enough money to meet the person’s care and support needs that the local council has a duty to meet. It should show the amount of money that the person must pay, following the financial assessment, and the amount that the local council will pay.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Direct payments
• Financial assessment
• Individual Service Fund (ISF)

An amount of NHS money allocated to a person to support their health and wellbeing.

Personal health budgets mean that people can manage their healthcare and support such as treatments, equipment and personal care in a way that suits them.

Personal health budgets work in a similar way to personal budgets for care and support.

Categories

• Health and health care
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Personal budget

A group of people in a particular area who have a personal health budget who work with people working in the NHS to help personal health budgets develop further in their area. There is also a national personal health budget peer network, where people who have a personal health budget can contribute their views and experiences.

Categories

• Health and health care
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

A way of managing a direct payment where the local council pays a person’s personal budget on to a card, rather than into a separate bank account.

People should always be offered the choice of having a ‘traditional’ direct payment paid into a separate bank account, and pre-payment cards should not be provided as the only option to take a direct payment. Local councils should also not encourage people to have pre-payment cards as a way of limiting their choice and control.

Categories

• Money
• Self-directed support and personal budgets

A system used by some local councils to give an indication of a personal budget amount appropriate to meet a person’s needs, to inform support planning.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

An approach to organising care and support so that the person who requires support is in control of the assistance they draw on and is able to play an active part in community life.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

A way to use a personal budget where the money is held by an organisation. The organisation arranges care and support for the person in line with their wishes.

A virtual budget is either held by the local council or by a third party (often called an Individual Service Fund or ISF).

A virtual budget is sometimes called a managed account or a managed budget.

Categories

• Self-directed support and personal budgets

Related Jargon

• Personal budget