I am about to transfer from a statement to an EHCP and I don't know where to find about the personal budget.

My son is 10 and I am not aware of him having any personal budget but to get one where do I find out what it is?

IPSEA says:

Firstly, as you are about to start the transition process it is important to make note of the date when the local authority sends you the ‘notice of transfer’. This is the letter they must send in law to formally start the process of transition. Without this letter, it will be difficult to make the local authority adhere to the time limits for transition as it is the ‘notice of transfer’ which formally starts the legal time limits for completing the process.

In law, a transition from a statement to a EHCP is an EHC needs assessment. Your local authority cannot simply ‘tip’ the information from your son’s statement into an EHCP. https://www.ipsea.org.uk/pages/category/education-health-and-care-plans

Personal budgets and direct payments were introduced as a way of increasing independence and choice for individuals by giving them control over the way in which services that they receive are delivered. Direct payments have been available to young people and parents of children with SEN and disabilities for some years to pay for social care provision.

The new feature of the Children and Families Act 2014 was the introduction of personal budgets for the provision specified within the EHC Plan, (including the special educational provision) and the possibility of direct payments for the special educational provision specified in the plan.

In respect of all types of provision for which a personal budget has been requested and identified, there are four potential ways in which parents and young people might be involved in securing the provision and having the personal budget delivered:

• Direct payments – where individuals receive the cash to contract, purchase and manage services themselves;
• An arrangement – whereby the LA, school or college holds the funds and commissions the support specified in the plan (these are sometimes called notional budgets);
• Third party arrangements – where funds (direct payments) are paid to and managed by an individual or organisation on behalf of the child’s parent or the young person;
• A combination of the above.

There is no duty on you to request that the local authority identify a personal budget, it is completely optional. However if you wish to request a personal budget for the provision within the EHC plan, you can do so:

• when a draft EHC plan is being prepared following the EHC needs assessment your son has as part of the transition process from a statement to a EHC Plan or;
• when the EHC plan is being reviewed annually

There are limited reasons in which the local authority can refuse to prepare a personal budget. This will apply where the personal budget is part of a larger overall budget sum and separating the sum for the personal budget:

• would have an adverse impact on services provided or arranged by the LA for other EHC plan holders, or
• would not be an efficient use of the LA’s resources.

If the LA does refuse a personal budget on such grounds, it should inform you why it is unable to do so. The SEND Code (paragraph 9.106) indicates that the LA should work with the parent or young person to try to personalise the services in question through other means and should use the information to inform future joint commissioning arrangements to ensure that greater choice and control can be achieved in future.