Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people currently in receipt of personal budgets receive this support as a direct payment.
The care and support statutory guidance sets out that every adult whose social care and support needs are met by their local authority must receive a personal budget as part of their care and support plan, or support plan.
NHS Digital’s Short and Long Term (SALT) Data Returns and Adult Social Care Finance Returns (ASC-FR) contain data on personal budgets and direct payments, but not the specific data points required to directly answer these questions. A complete list of SALT and ASC-FR publications is available at the following link:
Table 34 of the Data Tables resource for the 2021/22 release includes some data regarding the number of people in receipt of personal budgets.