Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the cost to the public purse of personal budgets for social care in each of the last 13 years.

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:

www.digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/adult-social-care-activity-and-finance-report

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.