From July 2011 to November 2014, Age UK was funded by the Department of Health to deliver a programme called Maximising Older People's Personal Budget Use (MOPPU) which aimed to 'improve social care outcomes for older people using personal budgets' through the development of an 'innovative volunteer-delivery model'.
This report distils the main findings of the programme's evaluation. It suggests that the programme contributed to a range of outcomes for both older people and volunteers. It contributed to growing levels of understandings about personal budgets and supported some people in the move onto direct payments. Its success, however, is perhaps best judged as enabling personalisation, providing a specialised information and support service and, on occasions, a specialised befriending and support brokerage service, which contributed to feelings of well-being and supported people in accessing services, rather than more narrowly maximising older people's use of personal budgets.