Personal Budgets - putting you in control of the care you
receive
Suffolk County Council is helping you take greater
control over the care you receive by emphasising the
choice you have in the way the money for your care is
used.
A Personal Budget is the amount of money available to you from
Suffolk County Council to assist you in maintaining your
independence. It offers greater flexibility than ever before over
how you decide how this money is spent.
Personal Budgets – what they are and how they can help you
Whether you need help getting around, maintaining your
independence within your home or support for day time activities,
it is important that you can have a say on what is best for
you.
Personal Budgets enable you to take greater control over the way
in which your care needs are met. Every new customer who receives
ongoing care and support from the County Council will have a
Personal Budget and existing customers can request one.
A Personal Budget will be offered once any urgent, immediate needs
have been met. We will re-assess your needs for ongoing care and
support after this stage.
You may choose to continue receiving care as you have done
before by opting for the council to manage your Personal Budget and
deliver the care you require or you can opt to take control of some
or all of it yourself.
What is a Personal Budget?
A Personal Budget is the amount of money that is available to
you from Suffolk County Council to meet your community care needs
and assist you in maintaining your independence. We will talk to
you as part of an assessment of your needs and review these needs
regularly.
This assessment will help us determine your Personal Budget, and
we will let you know the money available to spend on the care you
receive, and offer help in how you may choose to continue receiving
care.
Why would I want a Personal Budget?
Personal Budgets are designed to give you greater flexibility
when deciding on receiving care that is most suitable for you.
A Personal Budget:
- lets you take greater control over your social care
budget;
- gives you the opportunity to choose the services that suit you,
including employing your own staff, if that’s what you want;
- enables you to decide how to manage the support that is
available to you.
Who is eligible for a Personal Budget?
Everyone who receives care and support from Suffolk County
Council has a regular review of their care needs. At this stage, we
can discuss the choices available to you,
including Personal Budgets.
If you would like to discuss eligibility or any aspect of
Personal Budgets before your next review, please contact your
social worker or call us on 08456 023023.
Will I have to make a financial contribution?
We will talk to you about whether you will need to make a
contribution, based on your income and savings, the amount of money
you have coming in or put by. Everyone is entitled to an assessment
of their own care needs to find out what level of support and care
they require, and we will help you by discussing whether a
contribution is required.
How do I make use of a Personal Budget?
You have three options for using your Personal Budget:
- You can use your Personal Budget to organise how your support
is provided. This could include using a
Direct Payment to pay for a range of things such as personal
care or equipment to help you in the home.
- You can take part of your Personal Budget as a
Direct Payment and ask Suffolk County Council to manage the
remainder.
- You can ask Suffolk County Council to arrange your care for
you. The cost of the support you receive will be within the limits
of your Personal Budget.
Whatever you decide, you can of course change your mind should
your circumstances change or you are unhappy with the arrangements
for any reason.
What support is available to me when planning my care?
You can get help to plan your care and support.
We will help you look at what options are available to you as
a result of completing your assessment. Specifically, this would
include talking to you about the following:
- How and where you want to live your life
- What is working well now and what doesn’t
- What needs to change for your life to improve
- What help you want in order to best meet your care needs
- What assistance you need from other people
- How you will keep safe and well
- Who you might involve in helping you make these important
decisions
- How you will manage your support
- How this support will be met from your Personal
Budget
How do I get started?
- Contact your social worker if you have one, or call 08456 023
023 to request a review of your care needs.
- We will help you to complete a straightforward questionnaire to
review your community care needs and will give you an idea of
your provisional budget based on your assessment.
- We will contact you to confirm your personal budget. You then
begin the process of developing your support plan. This sets out
the details of the care and support you need and how it will be
provided.
- You can complete the support plan yourself, or get as much help
as you need throughout the support planning process
- We will agree your support plan when it is completed and agree
with you the way in which the money will be managed and
controlled.
- If you choose to receive all or part of your Personal Budget as
a
Direct Payment, you or your representative will then be
responsible for organising your support, or Suffolk County Council
will arrange your care if this is the option you have chosen.
- You will have scheduled reviews to check that your support plan
is working well and supporting you with the care you
need.
Find out how you can get money to buy the care you need
yourself.
Find out which benefits you should be claiming.
Find out about services provided or arranged by Suffolk County
Council that you may need to pay a charge
for.