Response to the evaluation of the Department of Health’s personal health budget pilot programme

Simon Lawton-Smith responds to the evaluation of the Department of Health’s personal health budget pilot programme, published on 30 November:

“This report clearly shows that people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities can benefit from personal health budgets. That’s an important message, challenging the assumption that people who may lack mental capacity, such as those with learning disabilities or dementia, are unable to make choices and decisions about their care.

It’s also very good news that personal health budgets are associated with significant improvement in the psychological well-being of patients generally.

It’s worth noting that budget-holders appear to secure more of their services from outside conventional NHS providers than the control group. New Clinical Commissioning Groups must recognise this and build it into their commissioning plans for 2013-14 and future years, as personal health budgets become more widely used.”