Made to Measure was a two-year pilot run in Trafford and Plymouth established to address the challenges of individual parents seeking to purchase services using their personal budgets.
It sought to ease the difficulties of identifying suitable activities and the logistics of purchasing the services. The aim was to increase choice and control for families of disabled children by increasing their influence on market development and the provision of services that meet the needs of their children.
At the end of the pilot independent research, conducted by The Centre for Child and Family Research (CCFR), at Loughborough University found that the experience of the parents involved in the project was overwhelmingly positive. The evaluation reported that participants found that through pooling their personal budgets they could access services and activities that were otherwise not available to them and a number of evaluation participants made reference to the potential to increase stability.