Children in Care and Special Educational Needs: Personal Budgets

(asked on 23rd October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recommendation in the Children’s Services Development Group’s Destination Unknown report on ensuring that every looked after child and each young person with an Education, Health and Care plan is formally allocated a personal budget to fund all care needs, education needs separate from those covered by the national funding formula for schools and health needs.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 2nd November 2020

Any parent or carer of a child, or a young person, may request a personal budget as part of their education, health and care (EHC) plan as a means of delivering the outcomes specified in the plan. However, the Children and Families Act 2014 is clear that whilst a personal budget for an EHC plan can include funding from education, health and social care, the scope of that budget will vary depending on the needs of the individual, the eligibility criteria for the different components and the mechanism for delivery. This means that decisions need to be taken on an individual basis, and a blanket approach cannot be put in place. Local authorities and their health partners remain responsible for securing the provision specified in an EHC plan, funded where necessary through joint commissioning arrangements.

Some local authorities have provided access to personal budgets for looked after children and care leavers. For example, two of the Staying Close pilots are trialling the use of personal budgets. However, decisions about the provision of personal budgets and other operational matters are for local authorities.

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