What a personal budget is
A personal budget is an amount of money the local authority identifies to deliver part of the provision in your child's EHC plan, which you can help arrange, including, in some cases, as a direct payment. It only exists once the council is finalising or already maintaining an EHC plan, so it is a post-plan tool, not a way into the system. The legal basis is section 49 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014.
There are four ways the money can be managed, and you can mix them across different parts of the plan:
- Notional (arranged by the council). The council holds the money and arranges the support; you can see the amount set aside but the council buys it in.
- Direct payment. The money is paid to you (or your young person) so you arrange and pay for the agreed support yourself.
- Third-party arrangement. The money goes to a named individual or organisation who holds it and arranges the support on your behalf.
- A combination of the above across different parts of the plan.
The part most pages leave out
A personal budget reorganises support the plan has already agreed. It is not extra money, and it does not increase the amount of provision your child gets. You are choosing how the agreed support is delivered, not topping it up or buying something the plan doesn't specify.
A few firm limits follow from that. A direct payment is not automatic: it needs a separate request and the council's agreement, and the council can refuse one if it would cost more or would disrupt a cost-effective service it runs for other children. Where special educational provision is to be delivered on school premises, the head teacher or principal has to agree before a direct payment can be used there (Personal Budgets Regulations 2014, regulation 9). And a direct payment for special educational provision cannot be used to buy a place at a maintained or non-maintained school or Academy.
When you can ask, and what's on the horizon
You have the right to request a personal budget when the draft EHC plan is being prepared, and again at an annual review or a re-assessment. It is a right to ask and have the request properly considered, not an automatic entitlement to cash. Everything here is current law. The Schools White Paper (February 2026) proposes narrowing EHCPs to the most complex needs over the longer term, with no changes before September 2030 and current plan-holders protected, but the personal-budget mechanism itself is unchanged for now.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.