Published 24 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2272
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2272

News

Individual budgets for social care work for some people but not others

Jacqui Wise

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Individual budgets for social care can give users more choice, flexibility, and control over their personal care compared with conventional support, a two year pilot scheme has shown. Users of mental health services and younger disabled people, in particular, reported benefits, but older people were less happy to manage their own support.

The programme was set up by the Department of Health to evaluate the costs, outcomes, and cost effectiveness of individual budgets as part of Putting People First (BMJ 2007;335:1231, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39426.592176.DB).

Pilots were set up in 13 English local authorities, and an independent evaluation by five university research units was commissioned. The evaluation included a survey of 959 people interviewed about their experiences and outcomes six months after being offered an individual budget.

An individual budget brings together resources from different funding streams into a single sum that can be spent flexibly. NHS funding was not . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Darzi review: Up to 5000 patients with long term conditions will have their own personal budgets next year
Adrian O’Dowd
BMJ 2008 337: a645. [Extract] [Full Text]

Older people will be given budgets to buy personal care
Zosia Kmietowicz
BMJ 2007 335: 1231. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ