Last Updated - February 21, 2025
Personal budgets for Education have only been an option since April 2014. A personal budget for Education can only be agreed to meet provision detailed in section F of an EHCP. Elements of the ‘top up’ funding that schools/education settings receive for a child or young person with SEND may be able to be made available as a personal budget to allow parents to secure alternative support services.
This cannot usually be used to pay for services where the local authority has a block contract in place with a service provider and cannot be used to pay for a school place.
In exceptional circumstances, there may be scope to agree release of further SEND funding from a school/education setting budget, but only with the agreement of the Head Teacher/Principal who would consider the impact on services for the majority of SEND pupils/students.
Requests for a personal budget can only be made:
For further information, please refer to:
All cases will be considered individually and it is important to note that what may be an appropriate use of funding to support a child/young person to meet their agreed outcomes, as outlined in the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), may not be suitable for another child/young person with a different set of needs.
Young people/parents who wish to consider having a personal budget to arrange SEND support services should contact Torbay SEND team, to discuss this further.
All families of children or young people are told about the option for a Personal Budget when an EHC needs assessment is being caried out. If they express an interest in having a personal budget their allocated SEND Officer in the Torbay SEND team will explore the option of accessing parts of the element 3 ‘top up’ funding as a personal budget and to discuss with their child’s schools any possibilities for the school or college releasing funding to also be used as a personal budget’, to meet the needs of the child/young person.
You are not able to use a personal education budget to pay for:
