About education personal budgets
Education personal budgets are another way for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) to get the support listed in their education, health and care (EHC) plan.
Who can get an education personal budget
You may also be able to get an education personal budget:
- for your child, if they have an EHC plan
- for your child, if you’ve been told they need an EHC plan
- for yourself, if you're a young person who needs or has an EHC plan
We may agree to give you a personal budget if:
- your child, or young person, has an EHC plan and isn't able to go to school, or a school place is not a suitable way to support their special educational needs
- it will help your child meet the outcomes agreed in the EHC plan
- it will be used to buy specific equipment
- if the support isn't usually available in your area
- it's a good and efficient use of our SEND funding and will not reduce the council's SEND services to other children with an EHC plan
Ask for an education personal budget
Speak to your caseworker if you'd like to ask for a personal budget. They can also answer any questions you have.
What happens next
If we decide to give you a personal budget we will give you you an estimate of how much money it could be.
Then we'll discuss the estimate with you, the support you need, and agree the final amount of money in your personal budget.
You'll then need to choose how to receive your budget. You can choose one or a combination of the options listed below.
You can ask us to:
- pay the money directly to you so that you can arrange and pay for support, called direct payments
- hold the money and manage it for you, but you decide how to spend it
- choose someone else to manage the money for you, called a third-party arrangement
If we decide we can’t give you with a personal budget, we’ll explain why in writing.
Get advice and support
Contact our SEND team if you want us to review a personal budget decision or need advice.
More information
You may be able to get a personal budget for personal care, such as activities or overnight stays for children and young people who have SEND. These are provided by our social care services.
To get more information about how personal budgets work you can: