Short Breaks Plan
Scope of this chapter
This chapter takes account of:
- Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010;
- Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review; and
- Short Breaks: Statutory Guidance on How to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Disabled Children Using Short Breaks;
- Short Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children: Departmental Advice for Local Authorities (March 2011).
Quality short breaks provide an opportunity for parents and carers of children with a disability to take a break while providing their child with a break from the daily routine and an opportunity to develop new skills and mix with their peers. A short break can be educational or leisure activities for disabled children outside their homes, services available to assist carers in the evening, at weekend and during the school holidays, daytime care and overnight care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere.
Paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989[1] (The 1989 Act) imposes a duty on local authorities to provide, as part of the range of services they provide for families, breaks from caring to assist parents and others who provide care for disabled children to continue to do so, or to do so more effectively. The intention is that breaks should not only be provided to those struggling to care for disabled children but also to those for whom a break from their caring responsibilities will improve the quality of the care they provide.
A local authority must provide, as far as is reasonably practicable, a range of service which is sufficient to assist carers to continue to provide care or do so more effectively. A local authority must provide, as appropriate, a range of:
- Daytime 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.
A local authority must also produce a Short Breaks Services Statement so that families know what services are available, any criteria by which eligibility for those services will be assessed, and how the range of services is designed to meet the needs of the families with disabled children in this area.
[1] Section 25 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 amends the 1989 Act. The Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011 provided further clarity on the duty to make provision of short breaks under the 1989 Act.
There are two broad ‘types’ of short breaks in Southend-on-Sea:
- A short breaks local offer that families can access without assessment, we provide two grants to support the local offer:
- Community Access Grant (CAG)– for parents and carers of up to £500;
- Main Grant (MAG) – for organisation and groups of up to £10,000.
- Tailored short breaks that require an assessment of their needs to provide a more tailored package of services to them.
Local authorities do not have to provide short breaks without an assessment. However, it is considered good practice for local authorities to ensure that “a local offer is considered in order to provide families with access to some short breaks services without any assessment.”[2] Like most local authorities, Southend on Sea Borough Council (SBC) offer support for short breaks without requiring a formal assessment of needs. SBC currently offer support for the local offer short breaks via the grants mentioned above.
Other local authorities choose to support the offer of short breaks via other methods. For example, some go out to tender to procure a variety of activities and offers that parents can book on directly after they have registered with the local authority to receive a membership card/number, deliver various activities via their own short breaks teams, have dedicated teams that work with organisation to break down barriers to inclusion and support children with disabilities to access clubs and activities of their choice, and some provide grants to parents in the form of pre-paid cards.
[2] Short breaks for carers of disabled children Department advice for local authorities 2011
It has been recently acknowledged by Ofsted and the SEND LGA peer challenge that the SBC Children with Disabilities Team appropriately assess and offers necessary support to children with disabilities who require additional support, including short breaks. However, feedback from professionals about Tailored Short Breaks is that both SBC and families purchase support from similar providers on a regular basis so there may be opportunities to ensure better value for money and greater certainty for providers if we can commission these placements more strategically.
In addition, we often use the same providers to deliver overnight respite to parents, but continue to spot purchase with them, rather than go out to tender for a contract for these services. Going out to tender not only ensure we are opening to offers from the whole market of providers but may also produce savings without reducing service (and possibly increasing) available. As captured in the Children Looked After Sufficiency Position Statement and action plan, we need to review and develop commissioning plan for tailored short breaks to ensure we are getting the most efficient and effective short breaks services for our children and young people.
Feedback from the Southend Independent Family Forum (SIFF), Southend’s Parent Carer Forum for children with special education needs and disabilities, is that for most parents, the short breaks local offer is not clear on what it can support or how to apply. Parents have also said that the range of activities on offer is very limited, with some not considering any activities to be suitable for their children in Southend on Sea. However, the recent peer challenge [3] noted that parents have been positive about short breaks available and said it was easy to access the annual grant.
Overall, there is question about accessibility, whether the short breaks grants are fair and equitable and if the range of services meet the needs of the families with children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities.
In line with the 2011 Regulation, we have recently reviewed our short break statement and will be publishing it online. Prior to amending the statement, we engaged SSIF to understand their views of Short Breaks offer, and to shape some changes to the short breaks offer, primarily the local offer.
However, we recognise that this engagement was very minimal and that there are parents and carers who may not yet engage with SSIF and would prefer to engage independently of SSIF. We cannot make any substantial changes to short breaks (and therefore, the short breaks statement) without giving families, children and young people an opportunity to co-produced changes with us.
To make any significant changes to short breaks must be co-produced with the parent, carers, children and young people who will use these services. This is not only something we should do as per Department for Education advice, but it is also a requirement in line without our own Southend 2050 ambition. Co-production takes time so we will need to plan and build in adequate time to do this. Furthermore, should we decide to go out to tender for any of our services there are legal requirements in terms of timescale, we must follow, which will also impact. The attached project plan includes the planned timescale for the short breaks project.
[3] Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Challenge 23rd November-26th November 2021
Last Updated: February 13, 2023
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