Foreword
In Yorkshire and Humber, we think it is important that people can have greater control of their own care and their health and well being. Our approach is to ensure that the services that are commissioned support people to do this. There is a considerable opportunity within the upcoming changes to the NHS to involve individuals more fully in decisions about the care that they need and how this is provided to them.
It will be important to build on the lessons learnt from local authorities, as they have worked to base social care services on the needs of individuals. As the NHS develops approaches to delivering personal health budgets it is important that we take opportunities to integrate with local authority commissioning of care, where this makes sense for people using the services.
The development of a personal budget for NHS care is a major change in the relationship between the people who use services and service providers. Personal health budgets are now being piloted in six of the 15 PCTs in Yorkshire and the Humber. These six PCTs are able to make direct payments to people using the services, so that they can directly control their own care; a first in the 60 year history of the NHS.
People receiving continuing healthcare support from the NHS will have the right to ask for a personal health budget, by April 2014. Nationally, it will give the tens of thousands of people who receive NHS Continuing Healthcare – those assessed to have complex health and care needs - more choice and control over their care. It is the intention to widen the coverage of these budgets to cover other service sin future years.
To help support these developments the SHA has set up a joint network with the PCTs and local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber that are piloting personal health budgets or who are interested in finding out more.
With thanks to our partners in the local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, the network has produced the following set of products at the links below:
- a communications strategy toolkit
- a summary of the current legal guidance for personal health budgets
- a culture change guide to help with implementing PHBs
- a personal health plan toolkit
- a report on the efficiencies that can be created by the introduction of personal health budgets
If you would like any further information about PHBs in Yorkshire and the Humber then please contact:
- Colin McIlwain (lead SHA manager) on 0113 295 2096 or
- Stephanie Carson (PHB Network Manager) on 07894387556
