Setting an Indicative Planning Budget

The process of setting an indicative planning budget should be timely, transparent and sufficient to meet the identified eligible needs.

See: The Personal Budget to read what the Care Act says about setting indicative and personal budgets, including more about what is meant by the terms timely, transparent and sufficient.

To meet the Care Act standard, it is necessary:

• to be able to explain how the Resource Allocation has been established, and the process for agreeing upon a figure in any one case.
• to put every eligible person with a social care need through the same process.
• not to charge people who pay for their care more than the actual cost to the local authority of buying a service.
• to give a person and/ or their representative an early indication of the amount of money that will be available to meet their eligible assessed needs. This is so they can base their planning on the resources available and consider creative ways to use the budget.

The Ready Reckoner Approach is being used in Lincolnshire to give an indication of the amount of money that may be required to meet eligible support needs.

The Lincolnshire Ready Reckoner was developed through extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders, including people receiving services.

The Ready Reckoner is an optional element included in the Adult Care My Assessment and should be used whenever an assessment or review needs to generate a new or revised indicative planning budget.

The Lincolnshire Resource Allocation Guidance (which reflects the Ready Reckoner Approach to calculating indicative planning budgets) is also available in the Local Resource Library under Assessments.

If you are of the view that the indicative planning budget is not sufficient to support effective care and support planning you should:

1. review the formal record of needs to ensure that you have not made any recording errors; and
2. review the process that you followed to set the indicative budget to ensure that you followed all the required steps.

If you continue to have concerns about the sufficiency of the indicative planning budget, you should speak to your line manager to agree further action required and next steps.

If the person has a unique set of circumstances that the Ready Reckoner has been unable to account for in the planning budget, an ‘Amend Personal Budget Request Form – Residential’, or an ‘Amend Personal Budget Request Form – Non Residential’ should be completed. Both forms are available in the Local Resource Library, under Providing Support and Personal Budgets.

Any process for reviewing an indicative planning budget should also be timely and transparent.

Sometimes a person (or their representative) may feel that the indicative personal budget they have been given is not sufficient to meet their needs. If you agree with this, you should follow the steps outlined above.

However, if you feel that the budget is sufficient to commence care and support/support planning you should:

1. explain that the indicative planning budget is an estimation based upon the eligible needs agreed during the assessment process.
2. provide information about the process used to set indicative planning budgets.
3. encourage them to proceed with the care and support planning process and explore the full range of options to meet needs that are available (which will include alternatives to Local Authority provision); and
4. assure them that, where there is evidence that the indicative planning budget is not sufficient (following care and support planning), this will be reflected in any final personal budget that is agreed.

Despite reassurances, the person may continue to be dissatisfied with the indicative planning budget amount and, in this case, you must make them aware of their right to complain.