Individual care budgets are to be piloted for disabled children and their families in a groundbreaking scheme due to begin in January.
The impact of extending the service to young people will be assessed over two years by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
A report looking into ways of piloting the scheme has been commissioned as part of the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme. A DCSF spokesperson said officials would select areas in England to take part in the small-scale study as soon as the report was available.
Benefits for disabled young adults
Individual budgets differ from personal budgets, which are being rolled out across the country for adults, because they combine social care funding with other funding streams such as independent living funds and disabled facilities grants.
An evaluation of individual budgets for adults in 13 two-year pilots, published by the Department of Health last week, found younger disabled people particularly benefited from greater independence in purchasing care services.
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External information
Aiming High for Disabled Children - information on direct payments