Personal budgets are a welcome idea but if power is going to stick in the hands of all patients, the Government and NHS needs to be realistic about the challenges of implementation says a report from the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network, which draws together evidence from polling, focus groups and in-depth interviews to give the views of hundreds of service users service users, clinicians and 40 local NHS and social care leaders across the country.

While the overwhelming majority of respondents agreed that personal budgets could be a change for good, they are a radical change and each group has different views of what increased personalisation will mean for them.