MRAssociates — Glossary

A personal budget is an arrangement where a local authority adult social care or children’s services department allows the client to control his or her care budget (or in the case of a child, allows the parents or guardian to do so). This allows the client to choose the care services that s/he prefers and it can be more flexible than a commissioned service (where the local authority arranges the care and pays the provider directly). For example, the client might choose at short notice to change the day on which a certain service is provided and s/he is able to negotiate this directly with the service provider.