Individual budgets are an alternative way of paying for social care. Instead of local authorities buying services on behalf of an individual, that person is given control of their own budget and can direct how it is spent, allowing the care package to be tailored to their needs. The research, The Individual Budgets Pilot Projects – Impacts and Outcomes for Carers, found that:

• carers are more able to engage in activities of their choice
• individual budgets for service users may be cost effective for carers
• carers identified the benefits of Individual budgets as including greater flexibility, choice and control. This positively affected how they spent their time, and improved the quality of life of the service user.

Further conclusions were greater opportunities for carers to help plan support for the people they care for under individual budgets than in conventional services. Carers of older people in particular were found to benefit in this way when the people they cared for had an individual budget.

However, the research also highlighted that the assessment process for service users’ individual budgets can sometimes overlook the needs of carers. Local authority officers also had mixed views about paying carers from a person’s individual budget.

Read more: …  http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_095462