Personal Health Budgets report from SPRU

Personal Health Budgets: Experiences and outcomes for budget holders at nine months: Fifth interim report from the Social Policy Research Unit.

News | 02.07.12

Researchers at SPRU have interviewed a group of people taking part in the pilot of Personal Health Budgets (PHB) in England, 9 months after they had been offered their own budget. 

The overall picture emerging from the findings is one of appreciation for the new way of funding, together with improvements in health and well-being; for the people with long-term health problems, and for their carers and family members. Problems and delays have also played a role in the implementation, sometimes threatening to undermine the good that the PHB has done.

People found that PHBs: increased their sense of control over their illness and treatment, led to improvements in mental health, led to less use of services and facilitated greater continuity of care.

For more details you can download the report, which includes an executive summary, here:

http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/2222/