Information Governance Team
Tel: 0161 234 3859
P.O.Box 532 Town Hall
Manchester M60 2LA
24 August 2015
Dear Emily Tyrrell
Reference: 9YWEXA (Short Breaks Services Statement)
Thank you for your request for information which was received by Manchester City Council on 30 July 2015 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You asked:
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I request the following information in relation to your Short Breaks Services Statement:
1)What evidence do you have that the statement is accessible to families (i.e. unique visitors/ postal reach etc.)?
2)How often do you review the Short breaks statement? When was the last time you revised it and for what reason?
3)How many children have been refused short breaks services because of eligibility criteria in the last twelve months? How many of these had an assessment?
4)How often do you consult families on the content of the short breaks statement? When did this last happen and how many families were involved?
5)What evidence do you have that you deliver short breaks to children and young people as outlined in your statement?
6)How many children do you have records of that you consider to be currently eligible for short breaks?
In response to your request, please see below.
1)The statement is accessible to families. As with all information about short breaks, the statement forms a key part of the Local Offer. We have dedicated Engagement Officers who have been strengthening links across the city with community groups, schools and libraries, BME groups etc to identify Local Offer Champions who can demonstrate the Local Offer and the information held within it. The Champions are invited to the quarterly Local Offer focus group to feedback and progress the development of the Local Offer. The Engagement Officers also attend Local Offer Drop Ins which run across the city where families can get one to one advice and support in terms of accessing and navigating the Local Offer. We have also commissioned a training course which is being rolled out to parents to give them the skills to use the Local Offer and to create the Champions to be based in local communities. Professionals across the city council have been offered Local Offer demos and training to build capacity with front line workers to support and empower parents to source the information they need
2)The short Break statement is reviewed annually. It was last reviewed in Nov 2014 and the following changes were made following consultation with parents:
- Parents asked for independent travel training to link in with Short Breaks. We have set up a pilot with one of the Short Breaks providers, which is being developed in collaboration with our Travel Training Partnership to expand on the existing travel training programme and offer this opportunity to a wider group of young people. We have paid for the provider to undertake the nationally recognised programme on travel training and they will apply the principles and training in staff development and induction to enable more young people to develop their independence. The provider is now part of the Travel Training Forum and this development will be monitored by the Travel Training Partnership and if successful rolled out more widely
- Parents asked for our mystery shopping programme to include children and young people. A pilot is currently underway to test out local universal services using users of our Short Breaks befriending service
- Parents requested we raise awareness about the training offered to Short Breaks providers on disability issues so that parents could encourage providers to access the training. In response the training programme is featured in the Local Offer and being promoted by the universal service commissioners
3)Data on the number of referrals for short breaks who have been assessed as not requiring a short break is only available from this April. Our Specialist Resource Team has dealt with 191 referrals since April and 22 of the referrals have been assessed and signposted to universal services. Universal services are supported through the Short Breaks programme to offer inclusive provision and a lot of work has been done to invest in this approach including capital investment, a comprehensive training programme, an on-line training programme and a mystery shopping programme for families including the recently piloted Children and Young People programme.
4)The Short Break Statement Review is a multi-agency and parent carer consultation. We consult with parents on the Short Breaks Statement every 12 months, however we also consult year round on specific areas of interest as determined by parents and carers via our participation register. Subjects raised by parents this year which relate to the statement have included how they would like us to work with them to increase their involvement and co-production, the Short Breaks eligibility and universal services. We have held well attended, themed parent events addressing these subjects. To increase reach we invited Parent Support Leads from schools so they could feed back to those parents unable to attend. We also produce a quarterly newsletter to encourage two way communication opportunities and have developed Local Offer Hubs, supported by the Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Team. These hubs are regular open meetings in community venues where parents, carers and practitioners can network, get support with using the Local Offer and give feedback
5)We require data returns from Short Breaks providers as evidence of delivery to children and young people as described in the statement
6)We have approximately 2500 children and young people with statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care plans who could be eligible for Short Breaks
This information may be subject to copyright. Freedom of Information does not give you an automatic right to re-use this information in a way that would infringe copyright, for example, by publishing the information or making multiple copies.
Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review. If you wish to complain you should contact me in the first instance. If you require more information about the Council’s access to information complaints procedure this can be downloaded from
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Amanda Corcoran
Head of Strategic Planning, Access & Inclusion (SEN)
Children and Families Directorate