Balancing act

A DH discussion paper on personal health budgets sets the scene for the programme, which will be rolled out from April 2014. Reflecting on the experience of the Netherlands, an article in the BMJ offers some wisdom based on having learned the hard way. At a recent conference, deputy head of NHS Commissioning Andrew Sanderson proffered the warning that personal health budgets did not provide "an open ended system of entitlement" and that there would need to be a robust way of managing demand. There's also a paper from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services that looks at the position of young carers in the era of personalisation.