A review of the personal budgets process for adults and young people in the Rochdale borough, Rochdale

In November 2016 Healthwatch Rochdale completed ‘A Review of the Personal Budgets Process for Adults and Young People in the Rochdale Borough’.

Healthwatch Rochdale worked in partnership with Rochdale and District Disability Action Group (RADDAG) to gather service user’s experiences of Personal Budgets from Rochdale Council Adult Care Services.

The overall aim of was to ask local people who are in receipt of a personal budget, to share their experience of the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) Adult Care Service, by highlighting any positive or negatives they have towards the personal budget process.

To gather evidence Healthwatch Rochdale invited service users to complete either an online survey, attend an event and/or contact them via a dedicated telephone number. As a result they received 21 responses from service users.

Conclusion

The findings highlighted that the majority of respondents who completed this survey felt satisfied with the service they had received from RMBC Adult Social Care Services, in particular the way the assessment had been carried out by the RMBC Adult Social Care staff. Although some information highlighted that when service users have had a review and their personal budget funding increases/decreases, some respondents expressed they were unsure why they had changed, which suggested a communication issue.

Recommendations

• To ensure the assessment procedure is a clear and transparent process for the service user and family members involved

• To have a resource, which is effective and useful for the service users and family members to obtain carers

• Review services which are and are not available to the service users through the personal budget funding

• To have a nominated individual within the RMBC Adult Care Services to deal with any queries relating to a service users personal budget