We are offering eligible people in south Sefton their own personal health budget (PHB) to manage and control how they receive their care and support. 

You can find out more about personal health budgets and what they may mean for you below, including details of what they are, who is eligible for one, and about our policy relating to PHBs. 

What is a personal health budget?

A PHB is an amount of money that is given to a person receiving certain NHS care, to allow them to pay for the help and support they need. The allocation of this budget is agreed between the person (or their representative) and their local NHS team. A PHB is based upon a detailed care and support plan, which identifies the health and wellbeing needs of the individual and specifies outcomes that demonstrate how these needs have been met.

  

Who can have a personal health budget and how do I access it?

People who receive certain NHS care have the right to have a PHB, including:

• People who are eligible for NHS Children’s Continuing Care or NHS Continuing Healthcare
• People who receive joint funded care through the NHS and Local Authority
• People who are eligible to receive mental health aftercare.

If you are eligible and you would like to consider a PHB, then you can work together with your lead health professional to develop a care and support plan. The plan, the proposed amount of money and how the budget will be managed then has to be agreed by us as your clinical commissioning group (CCG) as we manage and facilitate personal health budgets for the local area.

If you are someone who would like a PHB for yourself or someone you care for, talk to the local NHS worker who helps you most often with organising care – this might be a care manager, a nurse or your GP.

The CCG has also commissioned a Personal Health Budget Support Service (PHBSS) to help you throughout the process. The PHBSS is free and will allow the person with a PHB (or their representative) to be at the heart of developing their care and support. It will give them access to a range of services which provide information, advice, guidance and support to enable them to select the appropriate option to manage their PHB.

As part of this service, you can also get help from a PHB Advocate. They are independent and are provided by Sefton Advocacy. Their role is to ensure your voice is heard throughout the PHB process.

Find out more about how to get help from the PHBSS on the Sefton Carers Centre website here.

Find out more about the different types of personal health budgets and who is eligible, by clicking the links below.

How can a personal health budget help me?

We believe everything we do should focus on people’s individual health and wellbeing needs. That’s why, wherever possible, we are trying to 'personalise' the things we do.

Many people have said that by using a PHB they have more flexibility and choice over how money gets spent on their care and support and this makes them feel more involved and more in control.

A PHB enables you to work with a healthcare professional to prioritise the care needs that are important to you and to create a care plan that reflects your own personal health and social goals. Some examples of how a PHB may be used include:

• Having a personal assistant to help you with your daily life, or getting out and about
• Paying a carer to live in your home to help you
• Special equipment or changes to your home that help you do everyday tasks
• Supporting you to undertake activities that help you to be part of a community, such as taking an art class or joining a gym

Take a look at Val’s story below to see how organising a PHB helped her and her family.