Useful Info Page

Want help to get more active?

What are personal budgets? – One of the big changes in both health and social care has been a focus on ‘personalisation’ which puts YOU the CLIENT/CUSTOMER  at the centre of the process for identifying your needs and making choices about how you are supported.  Self-directed support is a key part of personalisation.  It increases your opportunity to choose the social care and health support that works best for you. Often this happens through a personal budget and/or a direct payments – so you can decide on and buy the most appropriate support for you to meet your outcomes.

A personal budget for social care sets out the amount of money allocated to cover the costs of your social care and support needs. This amount is based on a support plan agreed between you and your local authority.

We believe that you should be able to use your personal budget in whatever way you wish if you can demonstrate it meets your outcomes. Physical activity is a very important part of many people’s lives and meets a number of outcomes including; increased fitness, increased confidence, connections with the community and more importantly, having fun and being happy. Some examples of using your personal budget for physical activity can be;

  • Paying a physical activity or sports provider for sessions using direct payments.
  • Asking your Personal Assistant /Support Worker to support you to travel to and/or throughout a physical activity or sports sessions.
  • Making sure that physical activity and/or sport is written into your support plan if it meets your outcomes. Even if the funds from the personal budget cannot cover the session.

For more information about personal budgets and self-directed support processes take a look at these Disability Rights UK factsheets;

You can also visit our Stories pages to find out how other have used their personal budgets for physical activity.

What are personal health budgets? – Personal health budgets are an amount of money to support your identified health and wellbeing needs, planned and agreed between you and your local NHS team. The aim is to give people with long-term conditions and disabilities greater choice and control over the healthcare and support they receive.  Personal health budgets are based on the same concept of personal budgets, it’s all about the individual having a say in how their outcomes are met. Developments in personal health budgets are relatively new in comparison to personal budgets so approaches across NHS teams and CCGs can vary.  Personal health budgets can be an excellent way to meet your physical and mental health outcomes including being active. You can find out more about personal health budgets by going to the Disability Rights UK factsheet – Personalisation: Personal Health Budgets.

To see how others are using their personal health budgets you can also visit People Hub, an organisation set up and run by users of personal health budgets. You can also visit the NHS England website for more information and stories about people using personal healh budgets.

The Local Offer – The Local Offer gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families information about what support services the local authority think will be available in their local area. Every local authority is responsible for writing a Local Offer and making sure it is available for everyone to see.  Find out about the Local Offer by visiting Gov.uk here.

Visit SENDirect for information on services and activities available to disabled children and their families.

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