Short breaks for disabled children and young people

Short breaks for disabled children and young people

Gloucestershire County Council along with other local authorities has a duty under paragraph 6(1) of Schedule 2 of the Children Act 1989, which requires local authorities to provide services designed to give breaks for carers of disabled children and young people.

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. Short breaks also provide parents and 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.

You can view Gloucestershires Short Break Statement 2023-24 which sets out how Gloucestershire will provide Short Breaks for disabled and autistic children and young people and their families. 

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 all organisations that provide activities and clubs to be confident to welcome disabled children.

More and more disabled children can have a break without needing an assessment by asking a local club, child minder or activity provider.

Accessing Short Breaks

Disabled children and young people may access through their lives a combination of universal, targeted and specialist services at any one time or move between them according to their age, support needs and family circumstances.

 Short break services are delivered on a number of different levels to reflect this movement and meet need at different stages of their life. Below are Gloucestershire County Councils 4 levels of need, only levels 3 and 4 require an assessment, level 3 would require an early help assessment and level 4 a social work assessment. The assessment does not guarantee that this will lead to a service. An assessment assesses whether eligibility for a service is met.

Gloucestershire uses four levels of need; 

  1. Children with no additional needs-  no assessment is needed as needs can be met through universal short breaks
  2. Children with additional needs – no assessment is needed in order to access targets services.
  3. Children in need who require statutory or specialist services – a My assessment will be needed in order to access short breaks under this category of need. This assessment is completed by an Early Help team.
  4. Children who require statutory or specialist intervention- Short breaks may be offered following the completion of an assessment under the Children Act 1989. The assessment is sometime called a single assessment and would assess the families’ needs. The assessment has to be completed by a registered social worker.

  • Group based services
  • One to one support
  • Direct Payments
  • Over night Shortbreaks
  • Day care short breaks

Future commissioning and co-production

We will ensure that our short break services focus on improving life opportunities and outcomes for disabled children and their families through continuing to develop our participation strategy with disabled children, young people and their families. We know that the views of families and disabled children are essential to support positive outcomes. Not all disabled children and their families will need the same level of support; some will need more than others because of the nature of their child’s disability and their individual circumstances. We will continue to monitor and review the views of disabled children, parents and providers so that everybody feels involved and included. This will assist us with developing a cycle of continual improvement.

 What is an assessment?

An 'assessment' is when a professional talks with you about your child's and family's strengths and supports, and any concerns you have, or gaps in your support.  All disabled children are entitled to an assessment of their social care needs, leading to a support plan to meet any assessed needs. Any agreed need for short breaks will be included in your assessment and plan.

If you want to ask for an assessment, contact the children's help desk on 01452 426565. 

*REVIEWED SEPTEMBER 2023*

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Page last reviewed: 01/12/2023

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