Personalised Budgets

Personalised Budgets are one way in which disabled people who use social care service can have a say in how their support is organised. Progress in the area of Personalised Budgets would contribute to Ireland’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), in particular, Article 19 – Living independently and being included in the community. The National Disability Authority (NDA) is supporting the evaluation of the personalised budgets demonstration project in Ireland.

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Personalised Budgets background

From 2016 to 2018 we supported the work of the Department of Health’s Taskforce on Personalised Budgets in a number of ways including our membership of the Advisory and our role in chairing the Consultative Group. Towards Personalised Budgets for People with a Disability in Ireland - Report of the Task Force on Personalised Budgets was published in 2018 and recommended that a number of models of Personalised Budgets be trialled through demonstration projects.

The NDA joined the Personalised Budgets Demonstration Projects Oversight Group in 2019 in our advisory capacity. The Department of Health also asked the NDA to oversee the evaluation of the demonstration projects. The NDA has commissioned an independent evaluation team to conduct the evaluation.

Research to inform a personalised budgets project in Ireland

Previously we conducted research that contributed to the Government’s decision to examine the area of personalised budgets for disabled people. In 2011 we published a report called 'The Introduction of Individual Budgets as a Resource Allocation System for Disability Services in Ireland'.

We also commissioned a review of Personalised Budgets in other countries - UK, US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands - and published the commissioned report called 'Transition to Personal Budgets for People with Disabilities: A Review of Practice in Specified Jurisdictions' in 2012.

Related to this work is the report 'Research into the implementation of Resource Allocation Models' published in 2017.