Personal Budget
Entity which complete it
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Where it takes place
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Type of disability
Project link
Why is it a good practice of the Person-Centered Model?
Program in operation since 2020 that allows people with disabilities to have a personal budget to organize and direct their own supports and services. The model combines financial resources with non-monetary supports and community infrastructures, offering greater flexibility and adaptation to individual needs.
Person-centered approach: Promotes self-determination, inclusion and co-responsibility in the design of care. Based on an individualized assessment and grants the person, their representative or the local authority the management of the budget, guaranteeing a person-centered approach and their life project.
Integrated Assessment (Person, Family, Housing) and Life History
The pilot does not focus on clinical or deep-personal life histories. Instead, it aims to allow each person with a disability to define their support needs themselves. By introducing a personal budget model, the project recognises that support must be tailored: what kind of assistance, when, how, depending on the individual’s living situation, daily life context and personal preferences. The emphasis is on enabling autonomy through flexible, person-centred support rather than fitting people into a fixed service model.
Personalised Care and Support Plan for the Life Project
Through the personal budget approach, individuals are offered the right to plan, select and manage the support and services they need — whether assistance at home, mobility, social inclusion, or other services. The budget becomes a tool to organise support around each person’s life goals and circumstances. The model aims to give people with disabilities real choice and control over how they receive support, enabling them to shape their daily life and pursue their personal aspirations with dignity and independence.
Support groups
Although the project is framed as a structural pilot of service delivery, the model’s philosophy encourages that support be flexible and user-centred. Part of the process involves making sure that users have enough information and a support network (family, friends, or professionals) to make informed choices. This implicitly encourages the formation of informal support networks or circles of support around the person, ensuring that personal budgeting does not isolate but integrates personal assistance within a broader social context.
Case Management and Resource Coordinator
The pilot is coordinated at institutional level: THL oversees the design, evaluation and nationwide coordination of the experiment. The project supports local pilot areas and designs models for how personal budgeting could be implemented nationwide. Thus, THL acts as a resource coordinator, defining the budget mechanism, oversight, guidelines, evaluation and support structures — ensuring that the personal budgets are managed responsibly, transparently and in accordance with users’ rights and needs.
Highlined results
Has increased freedom of choice and empowerment of people with disabilities in managing their care, promoting more inclusive and personalized methodologies.
Inspiring ideas for other enviorments. It can works! 😉
This pilot shows that a personal budget model can offer people with disabilities greater autonomy, flexibility and real choice. Instead of standardised services, the approach treats each person as a citizen with rights, preferences and control. The model could be adapted in other countries aiming to implement independent-living frameworks, giving individuals the power to organize their own support, while respecting their preferences, contexts and life plans. It demonstrates that welfare services can evolve from institutional provision to personalised support — bridging social rights, autonomy and dignity.
Other observations
National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)