ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the basic principles of budgetary management in the context of the internal environment and looks at differing requirements when managing once-and-for-all expenditure as opposed to the continuity of day-to-day demands. The main purpose of budget management in health and social care is to provide an early indication of resource performance within the limits of time and money so that, if necessary, appropriate intervention is possible. Budget management in health and social care is made possible through a process whereby both spending authority and responsibility are delegated to those managers deemed best placed to maintain a spending discipline. Expressing a budget as a package of money can seem to be a more attractive format. A budget, whether it is an allocation of money or a ration of resources, is always limited by time – a week, a month, a year or longer.
