Pooled budgets: Budgets for better outcomes

Celebrated scientist Professor Stephen Hawking is famous for makingmajor discoveries about the nature of the universe. However, what mostpeople don't know is that he's also inspired funding changes inNottinghamshire's children's services. Hawking's use of a computeriseddevice to enable him to speak encouraged health, education and socialservice professionals in the county to test out similar equipment forchildren.

There was just one stumbling block - money. Each device, which speaksthe words for the child, costs about 6,000 to 8,000. "Itwould be difficult for one organisation to buy them but, by combiningour three budgets, we can," explains Susan Twemlow, development managerfor the pathfinder children's trust at Nottinghamshire county council'ssocial services department. As a result, four years ago, health, socialservices and education began work on pooling their budgets forchildren's communication aids.