Programme monitoring data suggests considerable success. Over 10,500 people across the five local Age UK partners involved in the scheme were reported to have had their awareness of personal budgets raised, well above the original target. Over 1,500 older people were directly supported by the local projects. The expertise and, perhaps most importantly the time that was made available through the programme, in part through the paid project coordinators but also through the involvement of over 260 volunteers, proved crucial. Comparisons were made to what was often possible for social services to achieve alone, particularly given the short time that social workers were able to spend with individual clients - here each local team could spend as long as necessary ensuring that information about personal budgets has been fully understood and assimilated. In some instances older people, or their carers, had been able to use this newly acquired understanding to negotiate with their local authorities, leading to some successfully negotiating to use existing personal budget allocations for new purposes or to receive additional money. More broadly, however, the programme was found to have enabled older people to feel more involved in decisions about their care and more knowledgeable about their options. It had also contributed to older people feeling more informed about what's going on in their local communities, and to generally feeling better in themselves.