A six-month project to explore the use of Personal Health Budgets in Cheshire and Merseyside, and identify the opportunities and challenges.

In November 2024, National Health Service England (NHSE) Northwest Personalisation and Community Services Team commissioned Community Catalysts, to undertake an exploration of the use of Personal Health Budgets, as well as identify the challenges and opportunities. The project focused on Personal Health Budgets for people eligible for continuing healthcare and children and young people’s continuing care.

Over the six months, Community Catalysts worked with people in Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board and people who have personal experience of these issues. The project was supported by a small project management group which met every month.

Scope of the work

We were commissioned to:

• Learn about local policies and processes and how they should work
• Understand PHB processes in theory
• Learn about how money is spent and look at other related useful data

Our exploration involved:

• Talking to people about how policies and processes actually worked
• Finding out what care options were available to people
• Understanding the training available to staff
• Exploring the barriers to people taking a PHB and whether this control results in choice
• Gathering examples of good practice to share

Our exploration resulted in:

• A short report that detailed challenges and opportunities and made recommendations of value to the region and more widely
• An event to share the findings and recommendations

What we did

Extensive exploratory work was completed locally to survey and report back from staff and people with a Personal Health Budget.

Engagement

To understand out how PHBs work in Cheshire and Merseyside and learn about local challenges opportunities we had face-to-face and online conversations with 42 people from Cheshire and Merseyside ICB and the areas of Wirral, Warrington, Halton , Liverpool and Sefton. This included 4 third sector organisations; 4 ICB managers; 27 place-based NHS staff and managers; 3 local authority staff; and 4 people who use a PHB.

Data collection and analysis

To understand the use of PHBs we:

• Gathered, read and analysed written reports, information and procedures
• Identified any data sources showing PHB numbers and statistics, and started work to analyse and highlight trends and indicators

Hearing personal stories

We heard the stories of people directly and via NHS and third sector partners. Some were recorded at a a stakeholder day in Warrington for those with a role or interest in Personal Health Budgets.

In the video below, Louise shares her life-changing experiences of using a Personal Health Budget.

In the following video, Michaela speaks about how Personal Health Budget support transformed her son’s life.

Gill shares how a Personal Health Budget changed her family’s life.

Want to create opportunities for Personal Health Budgets?

Are you an Integrated Care Board that wants to create opportunities for Personal Health Budgets? We can help you explore it.

Or if you have a system or culture issue that you want to tackle, we can help find creative and practical solutions.