personal budget in EHC plan

[Lilyuq]

My son has down's syndrome and is attending reception at local mainstream primary school. His EHC plan got approved in Sept, but we found total personal budget in the paper is marked as N/A, we called SEN officer and was advised that this is the standard, but personal budget as default. But I searched online and thought it should be not the case.

SEN officer told us we need to send email to explain why my son needs addtional support/cost, how is the breakdown and how much for each private therapy, and they will discuss and consider approval or not.

Just wonder if you have to go through the process to apply for the budget or you got it from the first place?

Btwe we are in Milton Keynes, Thanks all!

Didn't want to see this post left unanswered.
There are many limitations on what a personal budget can be used for - it is not a 'pot of money' that is allocated to your child. Much of the funding is already allocated to schools or commissioned services. What you can actually use a personal budget for is very limited. It has to be something detailed in the EHCP and not something additional; it cannot be used to fund private placements, nor can it be used to cover a service that is available universally, like speech therapy or occupational therapy.

Thanks! It seems no need to spend effort to apply for additional budget.

That bit will only be filled in if you've asked for a personal budget, and the normal time to do that is while the EHCP is being drafted or at a subsequent annual review - though I guess there's no reason why you can't apply at another time. Look at your council's Local Offer which is supposed to give lots of information and help about applying for a personal budget.