If your child has an EHC plan, or is about to get one, you have a right to ask for a personal budget. The Local Authority must normally prepare one if you ask, and there is one recognised reason it can say no. But the right only exists during two windows, and most families find out about it after the second one has closed.
This guide covers England. It explains what a personal budget actually is, when you can ask, the four ways it can be delivered, when the Local Authority can refuse a budget or a direct payment, and the one thing that surprises everyone: you cannot appeal the amount.
The right, and the two windows
Section 49(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 says a Local Authority maintaining an EHC plan, or securing the preparation of one, “must prepare a personal budget for him or her if asked to do so by the child’s parent or the young person.”
“Must” is the important word, and it is where most guides stop. The duty is real, but there is one recognised limit on it, and it is the limit that decides most refusals.
Paragraph 9.106 of the SEND Code of Practice says Local Authorities “must consider each request for a Personal Budget on its individual merits and prepare a Personal Budget in each case unless the sum is part of a larger amount and disaggregation of the funds for the Personal Budget:
- would have an adverse impact on services provided or arranged by the local authority for other EHC plan holders, or
- where it should not be an efficient use of the local authority’s resources”
Disaggregation means separating your child’s share out of a bigger pot. The commonest refusal in practice is that the therapy your child needs is bought under a single contract covering the whole area, so there is no individual figure to pull out of it. Note where this sits: section 49(1) is statute and does not carry that exception on its face, while paragraph 9.106 is statutory guidance. It is still what refusals are built on, and it is what you are likely to be quoted.
If that is the reason you are given, the Code says the Local Authority should inform you “of the reasons it is unable to identify a sum of money and work with them to ensure that services are personalised through other means”. Ask for both, in writing.
When you can ask is tighter than people expect. Regulation 4(1) of the Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014 says a request may be made at any time during the period in which the draft EHC plan is being prepared, or the plan is being reviewed or re-assessed.
The SEND Code of Practice puts it the same way at paragraph 9.98: the right arises once the Local Authority “has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed that it will prepare an EHC plan”, and again “during a statutory review of an existing EHC plan”.
So the window works like this:
| Stage | Can you request a personal budget? |
|---|---|
| Before the Local Authority decides to issue a plan | No |
| While the draft plan is being prepared | Yes. This is the first window. |
| After the plan is finalised, between reviews | Not directly. But you can ask for the review to be brought forward, or request a re-assessment, and if either goes ahead the window opens. |
| During an annual review or a re-assessment | Yes. This window reopens every year. |
“You can ask at any time” is one of the most common things said about personal budgets, and it is wrong. If you have missed the draft stage, your next opening is a review or a re-assessment. Usually that means the annual review, and paragraph 9.166 of the Code says plans “must be reviewed by the local authority as a minimum every 12 months”, so it is worth putting a personal budget on the agenda before the meeting rather than raising it in the room.
You do not always have to wait for it. Because 12 months is a minimum rather than a fixed interval, you can ask the Local Authority to bring the review forward. You can also request a re-assessment under section 44(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014. A re-assessment request can be turned down: regulation 24 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 lets the Local Authority decline where it has carried out an assessment or re-assessment in the six months before the request, or where a further assessment is not necessary. A refusal to re-assess is itself appealable, under section 51(2)(d).
One duty in your favour: regulation 3 requires the Local Authority to tell you what provision a personal budget may be available for, which organisations can give you advice, and the conditions that have to be met before direct payments can be made. If none of that has reached you, ask for it.
What a personal budget actually is
A personal budget is the amount of money identified to deliver some or all of the provision in the EHC plan. It is not automatically money that lands in your account. That depends on which of four delivery routes is used.
The Code of Practice sets them out at paragraph 9.101: “There are four ways in which the child’s parent and/or the young person can be involved in securing provision:
- Direct payments, where individuals receive the cash to contract, purchase and manage services themselves
- An arrangement, whereby the local authority, 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”
Only the first and third put money outside the Local Authority. A notional budget is a figure you can see, held and spent by someone else. That is still worth having: knowing the number changes the conversation about whether the provision is being delivered.
When a direct payment can be refused
Direct payments have their own conditions, and it is better to know them before you ask than to be surprised by them afterwards. They sit in three places: who is allowed to receive one, when the Local Authority may make one, and what you agree to in return.
Who can receive one (regulation 5). Direct payments can go to the child’s parent, the young person, or a person nominated in writing to receive them on their behalf. Regulation 5(2) then adds gates: the person must appear to the Local Authority “to be capable of managing direct payments without assistance or with such assistance as may be available to them”, must be over compulsory school age if they are an individual (this is about the person receiving the money, not your child), must not lack capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and must not be a person listed in the Schedule to the regulations. Capability is a refusal ground in its own right, and it is the one people do not see coming.
The four conditions (regulation 6(1)). The Local Authority has to be satisfied that you will use the payments to secure the agreed provision appropriately, that you will act in your child’s best interests, that the payments will not adversely affect other services it provides for children with EHC plans, and that this is “an efficient use of the authority’s resources”.
The absolute bar (regulation 6(2)). Direct payments can only be made for special educational provision specified in the plan, and “may not make direct payments for the purpose of funding a place at a school or post-16 institution”. You cannot use a personal budget to buy a school place. That question comes up constantly and the answer is a flat no.
The setting’s veto (regulation 9). No direct payment can be made for goods or services to be used or provided in a school or post-16 institution “without the written consent of the head teacher, principal or the person occupying an equivalent position”. The Code adds at 9.105: “Where agreement cannot be reached with the early years setting, school or college, the local authority must not go ahead with the direct payment.”
So if you want a specific therapist to work with your child on school premises, the school’s written consent is part of the picture, and it is worth getting that conversation started early.
What you agree to (regulation 8). Before any payment is made, the Local Authority must give you written notice setting out the child or young person’s name, the goods or services to be secured, the proposed amount, any conditions on how the money may be spent, and the payment dates. You then have to confirm in writing that you agree to receive the payments, to use them only to secure the agreed provision, to comply with any conditions in that notice, to tell the Local Authority about changes in circumstances, to use a bank account approved by the Local Authority solely for that purpose, and to keep a record of money paid in and withdrawn and produce information about it on request. A direct payment is not a transfer with no strings attached, and it is worth deciding whether that administration is something you want to take on.
If you are refused a direct payment (regulation 7). The Local Authority must tell you in writing of its decision, the reasons for it, and your right to request a review. It must then carry out that review if you ask, considering your representations, and give you the outcome in writing with reasons. A refusal without reasons and without mention of the review right is not a properly made refusal.
Note the limit on that right. Regulation 7 is triggered by a decision not to make direct payments. If the Local Authority refuses to prepare a personal budget at all, on the disaggregation ground at 9.106, regulation 7 does not apply. There the Code requires reasons, and the route from there is the Local Authority’s complaints procedure and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
And on amount, regulation 10(1) is short and useful: “The local authority must ensure that the amount of direct payments is sufficient to secure the agreed provision.”
The thing nobody tells you: you cannot appeal a personal budget
Section 51(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 sets out an exhaustive list of the matters you can appeal to the SEND Tribunal. Personal budgets are not on it.
The Code says so directly at paragraph 11.45: “The Tribunal does not hear appeals about Personal Budgets, but will hear appeals about the special educational provision to which a Personal Budget may apply.”
Which sounds like a dead end and is actually the most useful thing in this article, once you see what it means.
You do not argue about the amount. You argue about Section F.
Section F is the special educational provision, and it is appealable under section 51(2)(c)(ii). Paragraph 9.102 of the Code then says: “The final allocation of funding budget must be sufficient to secure the agreed provision specified in the EHC plan and must be set out as part of that provision.” Where the budget is taken as a direct payment, regulation 10(1) says the same thing about the payment amount. So a vague Section F produces a vague budget, and a specific, quantified Section F produces a budget that has to be enough to deliver it.
If the number feels too low, the question is almost never “how do I appeal the number”. It is “what does Section F actually say, and is it specific enough to cost”.
One step before you appeal. Section 51(1) makes the appeal right subject to section 55, and paragraph 11.44 of the Code says parents and young people can appeal “following contact with a mediation adviser in most cases”. Under section 55(4) the adviser must issue you the certificate that lets you register the appeal once they have given you information and advice and you have told them you do not wish to pursue mediation. So contact is the requirement, not mediation itself. Appeals only about the school or institution named, its type, or the fact that none is named, are outside this under section 55(2).
The routes that do exist if something goes wrong: the regulation 7 review of a refusal of direct payments, the regulation 11 review of payments, which you can ask for and the Local Authority must then consider carrying out, reconsideration of a reduction or a decision to stop, the Local Authority’s complaints procedure and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, and mediation.
One note on health. Decisions about a Personal Health Budget sit with the health commissioner rather than the Local Authority. The Code’s wording here refers to Clinical Commissioning Groups, which were abolished in July 2022 and replaced by Integrated Care Boards, so do not be thrown if the terminology you read looks out of date.
Five things people get wrong
| What people think | What is actually the case |
|---|---|
| “A personal budget is a pot of money I get” | Only direct payments and third party arrangements put cash outside the Local Authority. A notional budget is held and spent by the Local Authority, school or college. |
| “They have to give me a budget if I ask” | Normally yes. But paragraph 9.106 of the Code lets them refuse where your child’s share cannot be separated out of a larger sum and separating it would harm services for other EHC plan holders or be an inefficient use of resources. |
| “I can use it to pay for a school or college place” | Barred outright by regulation 6(2). |
| “The school cannot stop me” | It can, on its own premises, under regulation 9. |
| “If they refuse, that is the end of it” | If they refuse a direct payment, regulation 7 gives you an express right to request a review, and they have to tell you about it. If they refuse to prepare a personal budget at all, there is no regulation 7 review, and the route is the complaints procedure and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. |
Your week one plan
- Work out which window you are in. Draft plan, or annual review coming up? If neither, note the annual review date and diarise a reminder six weeks before, and consider asking for the review to be brought forward or for a re-assessment.
- Ask for the regulation 3 information: what a personal budget may cover in your area, who gives advice, and the conditions for direct payments.
- Before asking for money, read Section F. If it says “access to” and “regular”, the budget conversation will go nowhere useful until the wording is fixed.
- If you want provision delivered on school premises, talk to the head early. Their written consent is a legal requirement, not a courtesy.
- If you are refused, ask for the decision, the reasons and the review right in writing. All three. If the reason given is that the funding cannot be disaggregated, ask what other ways of personalising the provision they will work with you on.
Where to get free help
Every Local Authority in England has to arrange advice and information for you under section 32 of the Children and Families Act 2014, and paragraph 2.8 of the Code says the service should be impartial, at arm’s length from the Local Authority, and free. In practice your local SENDIASS is free. IPSEA and Contact both publish free guidance on personal budgets and direct payments.
If you are looking for a professional to deliver provision, we are building a directory of verified SEND professionals at find an expert. It is being built carefully and slowly, with every professional’s registration checked, and we would rather show you an honest work in progress than a list padded out with names we have not verified.
Sources: Children and Families Act 2014 sections 32, 44, 49, 51 and 55; Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014, SI 2014/1652, regulations 3 to 11; Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, SI 2014/1530, regulation 24; SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (January 2015), paragraphs 2.8, 9.98, 9.101, 9.102, 9.105, 9.106, 9.107, 9.108, 9.109, 9.166, 11.44 and 11.45.