Short breaks statement 2017

Background

Section 25 of the Children and Young Persons Act requires local authorities to provide short breaks for families with disabled children.This is set out in the Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011 (or Short Breaks Regulations 2011), which require local authorities to do three things:

  • To ensure that, when making short break provision, they have regard to the needs of different types of carers, not just those who would be unable to continue to provide care without a break;
  • To provide a range of short breaks, as appropriate, during the day, night, at weekends and during the school holidays; and
  • To provide parents with a short breaks services statement detailing the range of available breaks and any eligibility criteria attached to them.

How the statement was prepared

The statement was circulated to the Doncaster SEND Partnership Board, which has representatives from Doncaster Council, Doncaster Children's Services Trust, Health services, schools, parents/carers and the voluntary sector. It was also published for consultation on

Previous review / August 2014
Current version / June 2017
Next review / March 2018

The overview of disabled children and young people population in Doncaster

The number of disabled children in England is estimated to be between 288,000 and 513,000 by the Thomas Coram Research Unit. The mean percentage of disabled children in English local authorities has likewise been estimated to be between 3.0% and 5.4%. If applied to the population of Doncaster this would equate to between 2,156 and 3,882 children experiencing some form of disability (ChiMat Data Atlas, Disability Needs Assessment, 2012).

There are an estimated 71,877 0-19 year olds in Doncaster

  • The total number of children and young people subject to statements of special educational needs, education health and care plans or receiving special educational needs support in education is 5,477.
  • The total number of children and young people on the DMBC children’s disability register is 1195.
  • The total number of children and young people in receipt of services from the children with disabilities social work team in June 2017 was 33.

What is a short break?

A short break is a break or time away from a caring role, which used to be called ‘respite’ and forms part of a range of services which support children with additional needs and their families. A short break gives disabled children and young people experiences away from their main carers and also gives parents and carers a valuable break from their caring responsibilities. A break from a caring role can include activities which last a few hours, a day, an evening, overnight, a weekend or for longer. They can take place in or away from the family home and can include supporting a family to take a short break together.

Short breaks provision available in Doncaster

Universal:

Local Offer:

Doncaster’s local offer provides information for children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their parents or carers in a single place. Including leisure activities and transport support.

Together Information Exchange

All children with disabilities, including special educational needs are able to access the universal short breaks offer. They do not need a lead practitioner or early help assessment to do so. However Lead Practitioners should support families to access the universal short breaks offer as part of their family plan.

To access the universal short breaks offer families must be registered with the Together Information Exchange (TIE), Doncaster's voluntary register of children and young people with a disability. The register is administrated by the short breaks team, which enables them to support families to access the local offer including holiday activities.

TIE members receive:

  • Access to the afterschool and weekend clubs funded by the short breaks service
  • The holiday activity timetable run by the short breaks service which disabled children can book onto during the school holidays
  • A free TIE membership card to receive discounts at various places including Yorkshire Wildlife Park, The Dome Leisure Centre, Vue Cinema and much more
  • Regular information either through the post or via email alerts on events and holiday activities taking place

How to join TIE:

Application forms to join TIE are available from the Short Breaks team by -

•Calling us on - 01302 862332 to request one

•Emailing us at -

•Message us through our Facebook page -

Alternatively you can complete the online application form -

Targeted

Targeted support can be:

  1. Daytime care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  1. Overnight care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  1. Educational or leisure activities for disabled children outside their homes
  1. Services available to assist carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays.

Eligibility:

  • The child or young person will have special educational needs and/or disability regardless of whether the child is at SEN Support managed by the setting or has a Statement of SEN or an Education Health Care Plan issued by the Local Authority
  • Children and young people whose need cannot be met by universal provision
  • Family are in receipt of disability living allowance
  • Needs of the whole family assessed by their named lead professional using the early help assessment (EHA) or social care child and family assessment
  • The EHA of C&F identifies that the child or young person has high support needs and taking into account family context targeted short breaks are necessary to meet their needs.

Access:

  • Lead professional can refer the child or young person to short breaks via the EHM system.
  • In the first instance the child’s paperwork will be reviewed and if considered to be an appropriate referral then the short breaks team will undertake a Resource Allocation System (RAS) to assess levels of need within the household and potential options to meet this need.
  • Where the EHA or C&F has indicated a range of family needs, including the need for a short break the family should continue to receive this coordinated support. When the families wider needs are meet:
  • If the child continues to require multi agency support to meet their needs this should continue an EHA or C&F however reviews can move from 6 weekly to yearly in line with there EHCP
  • Where the family’s needs are met and significantly reduced by the delivery of a short breaks service the pathway should be ‘stepped down’ from a C&F to EHA and EHA to a single agency service and the short breaks package is reviewed in line with the child’s SEN/EHCP review.

Level of need / Support needs / Type of provision
Universal /
  • Low support needs
/ Universal:
  • TIE
  • After school clubs
  • Saturday clubs
  • Holiday activities

Universal Plus[1] /
  • Medium to high support needs
  • Family fairly resilient
  • Able to cope but needing support
/ Universal:
  • TIE
  • After school clubs
  • Saturday clubs
  • Holiday activities
Targeted:
  • Daytime care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere

Partnership Plus1 /
  • Family in crisis
  • Nearing family breakdown
  • Very high support needs with profound impact on family life
/ Universal:
  • TIE
  • After school clubs
  • Saturday clubs
  • Holiday activities
Targeted:
  • Daytime care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  • Services available to assist carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays

Safeguarding / CWD1 /
  • Exceptionally high support needs necessitating waking staff
  • Or 2:1 24 hour support
  • Child has an allocated social worker managing case
/ Universal:
  • TIE
  • After school clubs
  • Saturday clubs
  • Holiday activities
Targeted:
  • Daytime care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  • Overnight care in the homes of disabled children or elsewhere
  • Services available to assist carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays

Choice, personalisation and direct payments

A personal budget is an assessed indicative budget. It can either be taken as a direct payment (while still choosing how care needs are met and by whom) or leaving the council with the responsibility to buy the services on the child/family’s behalf. Families can also choose a combination of the two. To receive a personal budget and/or direct payment, the child/young person will need to undergo an early help or child in need assessment along with a RAS to determine eligibility.

Where a child has an EHCP, a Personal Budget may also include provision from health and education as well as a Short Break, depending on which setting the child attends or whether the child has Continuing Health Care and a joint package of care is in place.

Some families choose to buy their own support via direct payments and personal budgets. This means that instead of getting services directly from Doncaster Council, they get money to buy the support they need. Families arrange support themselves via direct payments (with advice from the short breaks team, using a managed account or an advance purchase system. The short breaks team also provides a brokerage service to help families’ source individual workers (where they do not wish to be the employer) and other types of support.

A direct payment enables individuals to be able to buy their own support. It may make up part or all of a care plan and can be used as part of a personal budget. There is no fixed list as to what you can get with a direct payment. Some families use direct payments to employ someone to help out at home. Families are supported to have choice and control over their direct payments to use them flexibility to meet the child and family’s needs defined in the plan.

It is not best practice for direct payments to be used to help parents access work, as there are other mechanisms for childcare support. In exceptional circumstances, where a family agrees with the lead professional that the care plan should include childcare help and this fits within their overall RAS assessed [indicative] budget this may be implemented if a case is made that childcare via the early years’ service is not appropriate to the individual circumstances.

Parental involvement

We seek to routinely involve parents via feedback (questionnaires etc) and representation via theDoncaster Parents' VoiceParents’ Forum.

The forum is represented on such bodies as the SEND Partnership Board.

Requests for individual short breaks must include the parents' views.

Children and young people's involvement

Children and young people's views are a mandatory field on any short breaks referral and are requested as part of evaluations of group based activity.

Doncaster Parents' VoiceParents’ Forum facilitates the LADDER group (Learning about Disability, Discrimination, Equality and Rights), which allows children and young people a collective voice within Doncaster. It should be noted, however, that the group does not just feed in to issues relating to short breaks but is available to contribute to any consultation within the borough.

Information

The main source of information with regards to the whole short breaks offer, including afterschool and holiday clubs is:

Outcomes

Where short breaks are provided on an individual basis, the lead professional seeking the short break on behalf of the family must specify to the appropriate panel what outcomes are expected to be achieved within a clear time frame of support.A short break plan will then be developed to support the child to meet these outcomes. The short break plan will form part of the child’s wider EHCP and/or family action plan or considered when a Statement of SEN is reviewed.

Where short breaks are provided in group settings, the providers conducting those groups will agree outcomes with the commissioning officer. These outcomes will be monitored by the commissioning officer.

Transport

Transport should be provided fairly but not unnecessarily.

Emphasis will also be placed on improving independent travel skills, co-ordinating this with school based independence work and where appropriate supported by the direct payments or sessional support worker where a young person has such a service.

What is being done to improve the skills of the workforce?

Within this context, “the workforce” includes all those engaged in providing short breaks for Doncaster’s disabled children and young people. The short breaks team administers a range of suitable e-learning, which is currently available to workers and providers from all relevant sectors.

Charging policy

Parents and carers may have to pay the element of a group based activity in a manner consistent with what families of non-disabled children would normally be charged for accessing similar types of groups or schemes. This will be consistent with the short breaks aim of families leading ordinary lives, with budgetary realities and will help address the consistent problem of families repeatedly booking things and then not taking up the booking.

Publication

This statement is published on Doncaster Council’s Local Offer – have been sent to all special schools and to the SENCos of mainstream schools, and all of Doncaster’s accredited short breaks providers. Copies will also be sent to all families registered on TIE and to all family hubs. It is also shared at the SENCos termly network meeting, which is attended by representatives from the parents forum and practitioners.

[1] Changes made in line with DSCB revised threshold guidance September 2017