Factor 8 - Emerging Practice in Individual Budgets

The essential structure of individualized funding is simple, and its logic is compelling. It gives people the freedom to develop their lives, using allocated public funds in the way that they consider best. It provides a means to ensure that plans and services will not be imposed upon them by community service providers and public officials. It provides for a process of negotiation between the individual and the holder of public funds. It also obliges service providers to treat the users as valued customers, and encourages the emergence of innovative services to meet their requirements.

- Steve Dowson and Brian Salisbury

Key features of an “individual budget” are:

a specific amount of money is identified to be used by the person for purchasing services based on eligibility
the amount of money is disclosed to the person and his/her family or support system
the person has control over how that amount of money is spent every year on the specific services or products allowed by the funding agency
the money is allocated to the person, not an agency or “slot”, and the person can choose to change the way he or she spend the money as needs or desires change

Individual budgeting is a central component of a “self-directed” or “participant-directed” model of support delivery. Individual budgeting provides a level of autonomy and control to the person receiving supports that is not achievable in any other way. Having control of how resources are spent encourages the person to determine what is most important to his/her quality of life. It provides opportunities for inclusion in community life that systems are incapable of achieving on their own. The process of individual budgeting creates opportunities for professionals to see the person in new ways.

Decisions about how to spend the money are often made jointly with a person’s family or other trusted friends and are most often paired with authentic person-centered planning in order to learn, over time, how to move toward attaining personal goals and dreams. Individual budgeting creates the opportunity for community members to support the person in real life decisions, based on strengths and gifts and moves people away from a medical or needs-based service system.

While the benefits of individual budgeting are clear, the reality of implementing a process of individual budgeting are complex requiring coordination between federal and state/provincial agencies in cooperation with local service providers. However, local service providers are encouraged to explore ways to give all the people they serve more control over the specific supports and services they receive in the spirit of individual budgeting until the reality of individual budgeting is the norm.

Andre Robinson, a community development assistant at CLS, says, "Self determination for people like me with disabilities is about freedom - pure and simple – freedom to decide how to live your life." Andre, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, continued, "Yeah, I need support with some aspects of my daily life; don't you? We need to stop funding the 'system' and … start funding people with disabilities – to meet their needs.