Gloucestershire Short Breaks Services Statement

Introduction

Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations came into force on1 April 2011. The Regulations require local authorities to provide ‘so far as is reasonably practicable, a range of services which is sufficient to assist carers to continue to provide care or to do so more effectively.’ Local authorities are also required to publish a statement about short breaks. This is so that families can find out what services are available, how services meet their needs, and how families can get access to them.

This Statement will tell you about short breaks for disabled children in Gloucestershire[1].

  • What short breaks are, who they are for and how you can get them
  • The range of short breaks
  • Why we have that range and how they meet the needs of disabled children and young people and their families
  • How we will review this statement, making changes over time and you can have a say

What do we mean by ‘disabled’?

In the Regulations, the word “disabled” has the meaning given in Section 17(11) of the Children Act 1989. That is, that a child is disabled “if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability as may be prescribed”. The language, of course, is now very outdated. The more recent Equality Act 2010 says “a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to perform normal day to day activities”.

What is a short break?

The Regulations define a short break as:

  • day-time care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  • overnight care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  • educational or leisure activities for disabled children outside their homes, and
  • services available to assist carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays.

Short breaks provide disabled children and young people with an opportunity to spend time away from their parents or primary carers, relaxing, having fun with their friends, experiencing the same range of activities and environments as non-disabled children and young people. In addition short breaks provide parents/carers with a “break” from their caring responsibilities, giving them a chance to rest, spend time with partners and other children. Short breaks can include day, evening, overnight, weekend and holiday activities. Making short breaks possible can range from supporting children and young people to join children’s activities and services in their communities to providing specialist services, or a mixture of both.

Of course all children and young people and their families are different, have different needs and interests and will need different levels of support and therefore different types of short breaks.

We know from local and national research that short breaks are a top priority for families with disabled children. They are one element of the support families need. We develop support plans that cover the whole range of needs of children and families, with clear agreement about what the plan is intended to achieve. Support is intended to enable disabled children to have the same range of opportunities as non-disabled children, and with their families to be able to experience the ‘ordinary’ things of life that others take for granted.

Who can get short breaks?The Gloucestershire Offer

All parents and children need breaks, whether they are disabled or not. Our approach has been to work in partnership with parents and organisations in Gloucestershire to make it much more ‘ordinary’ for disabled children and young people to go to clubs and activities in their own neighbourhoods, with whatever support they need. We want children and parents to be able to have breaks without having to ask us for them. We want all organisations that provide activities and clubs to be confident to welcome disabled children. We will continue to work with young people and parents and providers to make this usual.

Children and young people with very complex needs may require much more support to have a short break. We will work with parents and young people to make sure that there are a range of short break services for those with the most complex needs.

How can you get a short break?

Increasing numbers of disabled children can have a break by asking a local club, child minder or activity provider. If you, as a parent/carer of a disabled child, feel that your child’s needs cannot be met entirely within the community, you can request an assessment of your child’s needs.All disabled children are entitled to an assessment of their social care needs, and a care plan and services to meet any assessed needs. Any agreed need for short breaks will be included in your assessment and plan.

To request an assessmentcontact the Children’s Help Desk 01452 426565. This referral will be discussed with the disabled children’s service and the locality teams to decidewhich team is best able to support you and your child. A lead professional or a social worker will complete an assessment with you and your child. The lead professional may be someone who already works with you and/or your child so that you do not have to repeat lots of information to someone new.

If your assessment identifies a need for short breaks we will help you to consider all of the activities and child care options that may be appropriate for your child, and available within your community before we explore any targeted or specialist provisions.

If it is agreed that due to your child’s needs s/he requires a more specialist provision this can only be provided following an assessment.

Activities and childcare available to all without an assessment

Activities and child care are one way of getting a break.This includes extended school activities, holiday and weekend clubs, sports, arts, drama clubs, child care providers, and youth support.

We believe that disabled children and young people should, wherever possible, be supported to enjoy the same experiences and opportunities as non disabled children.

So Gloucestershire Council and its partner organisations will continue to focus on making sure that as many disabled children and young people as possible are able to go to and enjoy activities within their community. We want as many families as possible to have the choice of taking their disabled children to activities or child care without having to have an assessment, so we support organisations to be able to welcome disabled children. This support includes:

Information

  • Promoting and publicising the full range of short breaks, including clubs and activities available to children and families in Gloucestershire through the Family Information Service (FIS) and The Key.
  • Working with service providers to encourage them to publish good quality information telling you what you need to know – including (for example) their commitment to support disabled children, details of relevant training and experience of their staff, details of the building and how easy it is for wheelchairs or children with visual impairments.

Training

  • Providing a programme of ‘Inclusion Needs You’ training, available to all providers of children’s services and activities.
  • Funding training for activity providers e.g. sports coaches
  • Making sure that staff at clubs and activities have access to more specialist training when they need it.

Support

Gloucestershire council works with providers to support them to:

  • feel confident and happy to welcome disabled children
  • make sure a disabled child/young person is fully included and is safe
  • understand and meet their obligations to provide services under the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. This includes sessional work with individual young people to explore how the setting may make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to include a disabled child, providing information and arranging any training needed for a child to be safe and happy.

Funding

  • We commission some specific short breaks that are in short supply, such as Saturday clubs with sessions lasting 3 hours or more
  • We provide funding towards the core costs of local organisations that are making a significant contribution to the availability of short breaks
  • A grant is available for providers for specialist equipment or extra staff if this is needed to make it possible for an individualdisabled child or young person to go to the club or join in an activity.

Targeted services

Some children/ young people will need and benefit from services that are specifically designed to meet the needs of disabled children. These may be provided through local clubs or activities, and intended mainly or wholly for disabled children and young people. Your child can access many targeted services without an assessment. We support these providers in the same ways that we support providers of children’s activities.

Transport

We know that transport is a big issue in a county as large as Gloucestershire. Sometimes transport can cost more than the break or activity. Sometimes travel time to a break or activity is longer than the break or activity. We have increased the options for breaks across the county to reduce travel times and costs where possible.

Families using community clubs, activities and services, or targeted services, are expected to contribute to the cost of transport, or to provide transport, where this is in line with what any parent would contribute for a non-disabled child.

Where transport to a child care or activity provision costs more for a disabled child that would usually be expected for a non disabled child, (possibly due to the need for an adapted vehicle or need for a paid escort for example) this additional amount may be partially or wholly funded by the service supporting your child’s assessment and plan where this is agreed to meet an identified need.

In addition to considering the right contribution to transport costs, your lead professional or social worker will help you to make sure that you/your child is receiving the right level of the mobility component of Disabled Living Allowance (DLA). This is given to you/your child to help with the additional costs related to transport so it is important that you are receiving the right amount to help you with these additional costs.

If you have chosen to use your child’s DLA for a mobility vehicle it would usually be expected that this vehicle is available to transport your child to any planned child care, activity provision that you choose to use to provide short breaks. It may be an option in some cases for any personal assistants you employ to support short breaks to be covered on this vehicles insurance so that they can use this to access activities with your child.

Specialist Services

Specialistshort break services are available for children and young people who have very complex needs requiring more support than is available from community clubs and activities or from targeted services.

Specialist services include:

  • Personal Assistants(these can be funded via a direct payment made to you/your child or provided by an agency who will invoice GCC direct)
  • Family based care (Family Link, Contract Carers, and a range of foster care options)
  • Residential children’s homes

Because these services are very specialist, and are for children with the most complex needs, an assessment is always provided, completed by a lead professional or social worker in the Disabled Children and Young People’s Service. Outcomes (what needs to change) will be agreed, and a support plan drawn up with the family to achieve those outcomes.

Referrals for assessment are made via the Children’s Help Deskon 01452 426565. The type of assessment and who completes it will depend on the individual circumstances of each child and family, and will be discussed with you.

We are committed to making sure that children’s home breaks continue to be available for those children with the most complex needs who are unable to have short breaks any other way. We are working to increase the options available for these children by moving away from block contracts (buying a block of service for a fixed period of time) to buying services individually for each child and family (individual commissioning). This is so that we can buy from a wider range of providers across the county, tailored for each child.

We are also working to increase family based breaks, as we know that more options are needed than we currently have available.

Consultation and Feedback

What disabled children and young people and their families in Gloucestershirehave told us: what is needed in short breaks?

Parent carers:

  • Short breaks where children are safe and happy
  • A wide range of short breaks
  • More breaks in evenings, weekends and school holidays
  • Breaks as near home as possible
  • Specialist breaks for those with the most complex needs
  • Overnight breaks for those who need them, with the option of children’s home or family-based or activity breaks
  • Knowledgeable, skilled and friendly staff in all settings
  • Breaks at the right times for each family, to spend time with their other children, with partners, socialising, exercising, resting, studying or other things that are important in their lives

Disabled children and young people:

  • Opportunities to make friends and have fun
  • Friendly, energetic, enthusiastic staff
  • To be allowed to be boisterous and have adventures
  • To do things they cannot ordinarily do
  • To do exciting things
  • Staff who understand what they need
  • New skills that give them an interest, greater independence or that could lead to a future job
  • Time to just hang out
  • Mixing with disabled and non-disabled young people so friendships can grow
  • To do ordinary things for the first time
  • To be safe and happy

Over the three years of the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme we increased the number of disabled children we were supporting to have short breaks from about 400 to 1400. We know that there are more families with disabled children who need short breaks, and we are continuing to work to increase the availability of breaks.

We are committed to:

  • Continuing to work in partnership with Gloucestershire’s Parent Carer Council and Parent Carer Forum to understand the changing needs of disabled children and their families in Gloucestershireand to make decisions about the priorities for the budgets available for short breaks.
  • Continuing to work with the Voluntary and Community Sector and other independent providers to develop creative ways of providing short breaks and to understand the barriers to inclusion.
  • Continuing to listen to young people and parents/carers to understand and address the gaps in local service provision.
  • Monitoring the use of the whole range of short breaks and listening to the views of children, families and providers about how successful these services and activities are in meeting needs.

Reviewing this statement

This statement will be reviewed in partnership with the Parent Carer Councilat least every 6 months, and amended as needed.

To comment on this Statement contact:
Alison Cathles, Lead Commissioner for Disabled Children and Young People, Quayside house, Gloucester GL1 2TR

01452 427143 or 07825 273719

September 2011. To be reviewed March 2012

[1] Para 6(1)(c) of Schedule 2 of the Children Act 1989 requires local authorities to provide services designed to give breaks to carers of disabled children. Regulations relating to this duty require each local authority to produce, review and revise a Short Breaks Services Statement, and publish it on their website.