Personal Health Budgets

What is a Personal Health Budget?

A Personal Health Budget (PHB) is an amount of money from NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (LSC ICB) that helps pay for a person’s identified health and wellbeing needs. It is planned and agreed upon by the person (or someone who helps them) and the ICB. With a PHB you can have more choice and control over your healthcare and support, helping you to get the right care by using your budget in a flexible way that works best for you. Everyone with a PHB will be offered support to think through how they would like to use their budget to best meet their health and wellbeing needs. The ICB and Blackpool Council work collaboratively to deliver the PHB Service for the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria. Every care and support plan will need to be agreed by the ICB. All care and support plans and budgets must be lawful, appropriate, effective and demonstrate value for money.

  • Adults receiving NHS continuing healthcare who live at home (NHS-funded long-term health and personal care outside hospital.
  • Children and young people receiving NHS continuing care.
  • People with mental health conditions who are eligible for after-care services under Section 117 of the Mental Health Act. 

  • A personalised healthcare commissioning clinician
  • Community nurse
  • Friends and family
  • A support broker
  • Personal PHB officer

There are three different types of PHBs - A PHB can be managed in three different ways, or a combination of the following:

  • You will work with your ICB clinical case worker and PHB officer to create a personalised care and support plan and agree on health and wellbeing outcomes.
  • The ICB will determine the amount of money to be allocated to your PHB to meet your needs.
  • You will work with your ICB clinical case worker and PHB officer to choose an independent third-party organisation to hold the budget, pay for your care, and manage the care and support outlined in your plan.

  • You, or someone on your behalf will receive the funds to pay for your health needs.
  • You will work with your PHB officer to create a personalised care and support plan and agree on health and wellbeing outcomes. It also gives you the flexibility to plan individual and creative ways to meet your care and support needs.
  • The ICB will determine the amount of funding available to meet your needs.
  • The funds will be paid into a bank account, and you, or someone on your behalf, will be responsible for arranging and paying for the care and support services outlined in your plan. This allows you to be supported by the right person for you; this could be friends, family, a paid personal assistant (PA), or an agency of your choosing.
  • You don’t have to manage all your care through a direct payment. You can arrange some parts yourself, while other parts can be arranged on your behalf.
  • You will need to provide regular information to the ICB about how your PHB money has been spent.

  • You will receive an assessment of your health and wellbeing needs to help determine the amount of money for your personal health budget.
  • You will be informed of the total amount of money allocated to your personal health budget.
  • You, your family, and your ICB clinical case worker will work together to create a personalised care and support plan, outlining your goals and how the budget will be spent.
  • With a notional budget, the ICB directly arranges the care and support outlined within your care plan, using the funds from your budget as decided.

What a PHB can be spent on?

Employing your own staff

You can use a Direct Payment to employ staff you have chosen and are comfortable with. Generally called Personal Assistants (PAs) we can offer support to ensure that they are fully trained to meet your care needs and have relevant checks.

Accessing therapies

If your health assessment identifies the need for therapies not currently provided by the NHS, a direct payment could be used to access them privately instead.

You do not need to have all of your care through direct payment, you can arrange some of it yourself and other parts can be arranged on your behalf.

What a PHB cannot be spent on?

  • Alcohol and tobacco products
  • Gambling products or debt repayments
  • Anything illegal
  • Core NHS services, e.g. GP appointments and prescriptions
  • Purchasing good or services that do not meet your agreed outcomes
  • Long term nursing or residential care or top up fees
  • For Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funded: everyday household costs that are expected to be covered by personal income or through welfare benefits, e.g. food, rent/mortgage interest, fuel, clothing and other normal household items.

For further information about PHBs you can contact the PHB team via email at phb@blackpool.gov.uk or call 01253 476864 and a member of the team will be happy to help you.

View the ICB Personal Health Budget policy (under quality and safeguarding on the policies page)
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