A pair of siblings in the Midlands  have complex, ongoing health needs which include the need for significant amounts of equipment and oxygen. They live with their parents, who undertake a significant amount of the care.

Their personal health budget has changed their life and delivered significant cost savings by not only given them more choice and control about the provision of their care but has resulted in £25K saving per annum their transport costs.

The family had a traditional commissioned package with a care provider, where they felt they didn’t have any control over the care that was being provided and they had many problems with transporting the siblings to their daily respite care venue through this transport package.

But through a personal health budget, they now have a mixed package which allows them to have their day care and respite care organised by the NHS and employs a team of PAs. It also means that they been able to replace the ‘traditional’ commissioned transport package for their journeys with their own hired vehicle.

Their personal health budget gives them the flexibility to lease an adapted vehicle which is able to accommodate all of their equipment and employ their own driver and escort, both of whom are fully trained in all aspects of their health needs. In addition, the family can also now use the vehicle to access the community and for the journeys any time they wish.

Not only has this given them more flexibly to access their local community with have highly trained carers on hand, but it has resulted in significant savings (£25K) to their annual transport costs – from £63,500 down to £38,500.