19 research outputs found
Personal Budgets, Choice and Health – a review of international evidence from 11 OECD countries: A Review of International Evidence from 11 OECD Countries
Personal or individual budgets for purchasing health and social care are intended to offer more choice,
control and flexibility to service users when compared with agency-directed care. They are becoming an
increasingly common feature in high-income countries for purchasing personal care that often lies on the
border line between health and social care. In England, they have recently been introduced explicitly for the
purchasing of health care. There are some key motivations behind their introduction: they are expected to
give individuals more choice about care they receive; to expand options for care; to improve outcomes; and
to reduce expenditure. This paper draws from a review of the international evidence on personal budgets
which identified: descriptive detail on personal budget schemes in 11 OECD countries to examine their key
features and implementation processes; empirical evidence on the experiences of, and outcomes for, people
using these schemes, and; empirical evidence regarding the impact of the schemes on the healthcare system,
particularly with regards to resources. The paper examines the motivating factors behind personal budget
schemes in light of this evidence. It concludes that there is little in the evidence to suggest that international
governments’ expectations for personal budget programmes are well-founded. The assumptions that they
improve choice, and that more choice will in turn lead to greater autonomy and then improved outcomes at
lower cost, are actually far more complex and generally unsupported by evidence