Your guide to

Personal Budgets
What is a Personal Budget?
If a disability, age related condition or chronic illness seriously affects your independence and
quality of life, you may be eligible to receive Norfolk County Council funded social care.

Through Self Directed Support, Norfolk County Council invites you to have choice and control
and decide how your eligible care needs are met.

A Personal Budget is an allocation of money available to you from Norfolk County Council in
order to meet your assessed social care needs.

You may wish to:

• continue to use services that you currently use or want to use and ask Norfolk County
Council to arrange them for you on your behalf, known as direct services, or
• take the money and arrange your own services, known as direct payments, or
• have a mixture of both

We believe that you are the expert on the support you need and how you want to manage your
support.

What is Self Directed Support?

Self directed support (SDS) is an approach that enables you to be actively involved in arranging
and managing the agreed support to meet your needs. Self directed support enables social care
workers to follow a process to deliver personal budgets. Self directed support enables both care
workers and providers to work with you as an expert of your own condition and agree support in
ways and times that suit you best.
Your Personal Budget will be agreed as long as it:

• Meets your eligible social care needs to deliver clear outcomes

• Manages risks to an agreed level that are identified during the assessment or through
planning the support you need.
• Meets person budget rules.

Personal budgets have very few rules. Personal Budgets cannot be used on:

• Anything that is provided by an NHS Professional or other funding source e.g.

counselling, wheelchairs, Disability Facilities Grants, Charitable Organisations.
• Anything that is considered a day to day living expense e.g. rent, food, utilities
• Anything that is illegal or lawful but would not promote wellbeing and could bring the
council into disrepute.

How do Personal Budgets work?

Norfolk County Council will talk about the self directed support approach to deliver Personal
Budgets to new customers, or if you currently receive a service from us, at your next annual
review.

Part of your assessment is to complete a Personal Budget Questionnaire. This is a list of

questions about how you live your day to day life.

The assessment process will be used to find out the estimated amount of funding available to
you and if applicable, the amount you will need to contribute yourself.

The amount of funding can then be used in a variety of ways. This is done through Support
Planning. Support planning sets out how you plan to make sure that your eligible needs are
met

Norfolk County Council needs to agree the support plan. Once this is done you will have a
Personal Budget and be able to go ahead and put your support plan into action.

Your Personal Budget will be reviewed annually and amended as your needs or
circumstances may change.

So what can you expect?

• You will know early on an estimated amount of money allocate to plan the support you
need to meet your assessed and eligible needs.
• You can use your Personal Budget to get your support in different ways.
• You can be imaginative and creative in the way you get your support as long as it
meets your needs, manages risks and delivers clear outcomes. But, you don’t have to,
you can continue with the services you have already received if you prefer.
• You can be as involved as you want to be in directing and organising your support

• Your social care worker will provide you with information to enable you to create a
support plan. You can get support from friends, family, independent providers to plan
the support you need and create a support plan.
How have people used their Personal Budgets?

The support agreed is based on your individual eligible needs to deliver clear outcomes
and manage risks. What is agreed for you will be very different to what is agreed for
another person.

People have:
• Choose to employ their own staff, to provide support at times that suited them.
This meant they were directly responsible for the care provided and gained
experience of being a good employer.

Choose to attend a club or leisure activity to meet friends and have social contact, rather
than attending a day centre

What people have said about Personal Budgets?

“The best thing I have ever done for my son”

“It has completely transformed our lives”
“I feel important now”
“It’s marvellous”
“he now has purpose in life, more positive in outlook and talks about the future”
“The scheme… has given her such a boost after such a bad time”.

Independent providers give advice and support to people using Personal Budgets and direct
payments in Norfolk, to find out who these are look on the Norfolk Directory or contact your
social care worker to identify who these are.

Norfolk County Council have arranged for an independent provider (Equal Lives) to provide
an information and advice service to people in receipt of a personal budget.

To find out more about Equal Lives you can go to their website: http://equallives.org.uk/ or
you can contact them on 01508 491222.
Getting in touch

Contact us on 0344 800 8020

 For social care information and advice
 To find out about the support we can provide
 To access services
 For leaflets – plus large print, tape, Braille and translations
 For urgent help at anytime – not just office hours

Or use our online enquiry form at: https://online.norfolk.gov.uk/enquiry/

Or text phone 0344 800 8011 fax 0344 800 8012
Or mobile phone text 60046
Or visit our website at www.norfolk.gov.uk .

Or visit our Council Information Centres at:

Broadland District Council offices

Diss Town Council office
Downham Market Priory Centre
Fakenham Connect
Harleston Information Plus
Kings Lynn District Council offices

All Norfolk libraries have a Council@your Library where members of the public can get
access to a free phone, leaflets and ask a member of staff a question about council
services.

Or write to:
Norfolk County Council
Social Care Centre of Excellence
Community Services (adult care)
PO Box 3120
Norwich NR7 7AB

Useful Links:
Department of health www.dh.gov.uk
Equal Lives www.ncodp.org.uk or http://equallives.org.uk/
Independent Living funds (ILF) www.ilf.org.uk
Care Quality Commission (CQC) www.cqc.org.uk

If you need this leaflet in

another format or language
please call 0344 800 8020 and
we will do our best to help.

HOSC 02/07/2013