Virtual Money Box

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Published: 24 November 2005

Virtual Money Box

Some older and disabled people across England are to receive a virtual money box as part of a programme of cross government pilots, announced by Health Minister Liam Byrne.

Thirteen pilot sites across England will receive a share of £2.6m to set up systems to test out individual budgets, which will be designed to help people to:

· take control of their own social care budgets,

· manage their support and

· choose the services that suit them best

· to help them live the lives they want.

They will bring together support to help people stay in their own homes, adapt their homes to make life easier, and other services such as the home care that councils provide.

This will combine income streams overseen by the Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which are all working together on this project.

Liam Byrne, Minister for Care Services said:

"Individual budgets well help vulnerable older and disabled people take control of their lives and choose the services that suit them best. This is about providing people with choice, empowerment and freedom - themes we will be developing further in our forthcoming White Paper on out of hospital care."

The thirteen pilots have been selected to cover all parts of the country and represent a range of people with various care needs.

The pilot sites will each receive up to £200,000 to look at various models for delivering individual budgets to groups of people including:

· older people,

· people with learning or physical disabilities,

· people with mental health needs and

· young adults.

Care managers will help them plan how to use their budget.

The individual budgets are intended to:

· Streamline the assessment process across agencies, so people don't have to repeatedly provide the same information

· Bring together a variety of streams of support and/or funding, from more than one agency.

· Give individuals the ability to use the budget in a way that best suits their own particular requirement

· Allow support from a broker or advocate, family or friends, as the individual desires

· Be delivered within local authorities' existing resource budget

Department for Work and Pensions Minister for Disabled People, Anne McGuire said:

''This is a massive step for disabled people towards independence. These pilots are not just about putting money into the hands of disabled people. They are about giving people power of choice and control over their own lives.

These pilots have been welcomed by disabled people themselves.

They are one of the first initiatives arising from the Government's ambitious strategy to improve outcomes for disabled people within a generation, which we set out earlier this year.

We will aim to build on this good news by the end of the year with the launch of a new Office for Disability Issues to drive this strategy forward.''

The successful applicants for the pilot schemes are:

· West Sussex County Council

· Lincolnshire County Council

· Leicester City Council

· Essex County Council

· Norfolk County Council

· Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

· Coventry City Council

· Bath and North East Somerset Council

· Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council

· London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

· Gateshead Council

· Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council

· Manchester City Council

John Dixon, Co-Chair of the ADSS Disabilities Committee, said:

" The pilot approach is clearly sound, and we hope that we can rapidly disseminate the learning across the country, so people can quickly benefit through having more control over their services."

The pilots will start in the first half of 2006 and will last for between 18 months and two years.

The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) will offer implementation support to the pilot sites and there will be a comprehensive evaluation to see if the budgets really do give people more control of their lives.

The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit report Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People recommended piloting Individual Budgets to bring together different sources of funding, increasing the choice and control disabled people have over the support they need and its delivery.

The report also recommended an Office for Disability Issues to provide a cross-government focus on disability issues.

Further information

Office for Disability Issues

National centre for independent living

Independent Living Institute

Independent Living Funds

ADSS Disabilities Committee

Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP)

Coalition on Charging

DWP Research Report No.137 - Independent living in later life: a literature review

Oxford Institute for Ageing

Supporting People wesite