What is a short break?
The Council has a statutory responsibility to provide access to short break services. These services are designed to assist individuals who care for children with disabilities to continue to do so, or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring. The local authority must offer short breaks as part of a proactive and preventative support offer aimed at:
- Keeping families together
- Preventing family breakdown
- Preventing children and young people with disabilities becoming children in care
Short breaks are intended to have positive outcomes for both disabled children and young people and their parents and carers.
A short breaks offer should support a family to maintain a good family life, provide opportunities for the child or young person to spend time away from home engaging in fun and exciting activities; and being with peer groups whilst supporting independence. It gives families an opportunity to have a break from their caring responsibilities, and to support them to continue to care for their children at home.
Short breaks consist of day, evening, overnight or weekend breaks. These can take place in an individual’s own home, the home of an approved carer, or a residential or community setting.
These breaks could allow you as a parent or carer to:
- Meet the needs of other children in the family, carry out day to day tasks in the household, or attend education classes or leisure activities
Councils must provide, as far as possible, a range of services to meet the needs of carers. These services can help you care or care more effectively and can include:
- Day care in your child’s home and somewhere else
- Overnight care in your child’s home and somewhere else
- Education or leisure activities for children outside of their own home
- Services in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays
Principles
- Short breaks are in addition to universal or mainstream provision – where criteria are met
- Short breaks should be preventative – not crisis intervention
- Short breaks should support carers and provide benefits and opportunities to children and young people
- Short breaks should improve outcomes for disabled children, young people and their families
- Short breaks should consider siblings as part of a single assessment
- Short breaks are personal to individual need
- Children whose needs are assessed to meet the ‘specific’ statutory duties receive a level of service (or direct payments) that are sufficient to meet those needs