Hampshire Children’s Services

Personalisation and Personal Budgets Pilot

A Parent and Carer Guide

Contents

What are the changes about?

Why is Hampshire Children’s Services involved?

What is a Personal Budget?

How could this work for our family?

Why should we get involved in the pilot?

How will the pilot work?

Who can help us with the plan?

How will we know if the plan is working?

What else do we need to know?

In March 2011 the Government published a ‘Green Paper’ about children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). The green paper put forward proposals and suggestions about improving the way children, young people and their families are supported to make important choices about their lives. In 2012 the Government published ‘Next Steps’ and also draft legislation which explained how the law is likely to be changed for children& young people with SEND and their families.

These are some of the reasons why the Government decided to think about the changes for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disability in the ‘Green Paper’.

What are the changes about?

Families said that there were too many different assessments for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability.

Families told the Government that they had to tell services about their ‘family story’ far too many times.

Young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability did not have paid jobs and often had poor health and housing plans.

Families and people working with them all wanted to improve the lives of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

Why is Hampshire Children’s Services Involved?

Pathfinders are the first areas in the country to try out some of the Governments new ideas. Hampshire is part of one of these pathfinders made up of local authorities and related health trusts.

This pathfinder group is called the South East 7. The South East 7 group are: Medway, Kent, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Brighton and Hove and Hampshire.

One of the new ways of working with children, young people with disabilities and their families, is by offering them a personal budget.

The five key areas of focus within Hampshire are:

A new assessment and Single Plan approach, including the role of a key worker.

Age and employment - transition issues for young people and their hopes and aspirations for employment.

Establishing Personal Budgets.

A 'Local Core Offer' setting out what you could expect for your child from health, social care and education.

Support to Parents and Carers, including trialling approaches to mediation, complaints and redress.

What is a Personal Budget?

A personal budget is an amount of money that is agreed by Hampshire Children’s services. This is to help disabled children, young people and their families choose the sort of support and services they think will help them reach their goals. The agreed amount of money can be either paid into the bank via a direct payment or Hampshire County Council can pay the providers of support services directly.

Short Breaks

In Hampshire our short breaks team are working with providers in your local communities to help them provide a range of specialist and inclusive activities for children/young people with a disability. You can find out about these activities and how your child can get involved by phoning 01962 846399 or looking on the website at www.hampshiregateway.info

Short Breaks can be accessed by any child/young person with a disability and do not require an assessment. You can view the Short Breaks Service statement on the Hantsweb site.

How could this work for our family?

Having a regular amount of money that has been agreed by Hampshire Children’s Services to help you meet your needs, hopes and aspirations, should help you have much more choice and control about the things you choose and the way you plan. This should really improve your life. As long as you are reaching the outcomes agreed in your plan, you can get ‘Creative’.

The Support Plan

The support plan will bring together the important things you want to change or make happen in order to be happy, healthy, safe, included and to learn & achieve. These would have been agreed during the assessment.

It is important to think about what your child, young person likes & enjoys, as well as what they and you as a family may find difficult and want to change.

Why should we get involved in the pilot?

If you are part of Hampshire’s personal budgets pilot, you will be helping to shape services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs in the Future. You will also be able to tell us whether you have experienced real change in the choices you have been able to make and control you need to make them.

Hampshire Children’s Services will learn from our personal budgets pilot this year, what works well for families and what we will need to change to improve things for the future. Your part in this work is extremely important to us and we will endeavour to support you to our very best abilities.

The pathfinder gives parents an exciting opportunity to shape policy and decision making in a way we have never seen before. It is really important for this work that we can find a range of parents who are willing to be involved with trials such as the Personal budgets trial toensure that we know the new way of working will actually work in the real world, with real families and that it will make real and positive differences to children’s lives. We are very grateful to any parent who offers to get involved with this very important piece of work

Hampshire Parent Carer Network

Who can help us with the plan?

During the pilot, you can choose who you want to help you to create the plan alongside an independent facilitator. You could ask a friend who knows you well. It could also be your child or young person’s social worker.

If the support planner is not the social worker they will have a joint visit with your planner to make sure that everyone is clear about the goals and outcomes that need to be reached.

Get Creative

The next step is to think about what kinds of support and services could be arranged to make that happen.

It’s good to be creative and to think about ways of reaching your goals by using support in the family, in the community where you live, as well as specialist services.

The contact details for the short breaks team has been given in this document.

How will the pilot work?

Who will manage the money?

Children’s Services will need to make sure that the amount of money agreed for you is set at the right level to help you meet your goals and outcomes.

If the personal budget money is paid into a bank account via a direct payment, it is important you keep a record of the payments you make, for the support & services agreed in the plan.

Audit

Your child, or young person’s social worker will carry out a regular audit with you at a pre arranged time. An audit is a time set aside to look at the paperwork, i.e. payments out and in of the bank account. Invoices & bank statements should be kept safely for this purpose.

The agreed amount of money can be either paid into the bank via a direct payment or Hampshire County Council can pay the providers of support services directly.

How will we know if the plan is right?

After three months and then every six months, there will be a review meeting to look at whether the goals in your plan are being achieved. It is important that you think about how the plan is making a difference to you, so that you can decide what you want to keep the same, change, or move on to. Your social worker will arrange this meeting and will talk to you before the meeting to help you prepare.

We would like children & young people to really ‘Have a Say’, in their reviews and your social worker will make sure you have been given the chance to be there and prepare what you would like to say. As a young person grows up, their plan should change with them, so that new hopes, wishes and aspirations don’t get left behind.

What if we don’t agree with the outcome of the RAS?

If you are unhappy with any changes that may be proposed or think the funding is not enough to meet your child’s needs then an opportunity will be made for you to talk this over with your social worker and the decision maker.

Your social worker will keep you updated throughout the assessment and planning process so that you are aware of timescales and anydelays in decision making process.

What else do we need to know?

Please note down any questions that you may have about the pilot so that your social worker can provide any additional information.