About the pilots

In 2009 the Government pledged its commitment to creating a more personalised and responsive NHS by nominating 73 primary care trusts in 66 sites across England as provisional pilots for personal health budgets.

Personal health budgets list of pilot sites

Of these, twenty sites have been selected to participate in an in-depth study to identify the benefits of personal health budgets for health and the patient groups who will benefit most from them.

We believe that personal health budgets could give patients a better experience and better care by giving them as much control over their healthcare as is appropriate for them. Our main aim in introducing personal health budgets, however, is to support the cultural change that is needed to create a more personalised NHS.

This is a very different way of commissioning services, and we know there are many details and complexities to work through. That is why we are piloting personal budgets, and evaluating the work that the pilot sites will do.

The pilot programme will run for three years, until 2012.