Short Breaks

Ways to Access Short Break Provision

Cumbria`s Short Break Services Interim Statement

Why do we need a short breaks statement?

As part of the new short break duty, each local authority is required to publish a short break services statement so that families know what services are available, the eligibility criteria for these services and how the range of short breaks are designed to meet the local needs of families with disabled children. 

Local authorities are required to publish the statement on their website by 1 October 2011. The Cumbria short breaks statement has been prepared by the Children’s Services Commissioning team with input from the Children’s Social Care team. It is still at an interim stage and awaits further feedback from our partners such as parents forums, disabled children, and young people, professionals and practitioners from social care, health, education and the community and voluntary sector.

Who is responsible?

The lead officer at Cumbria County Council currently responsible for preparing this statement is Planning & Commissioning Manager 6-19+ Mike Conefrey.

We want to ensure that as many families as possible have a chance to comment on the statement and wider consultation will be undertaken through our parent forums, Learning to Change steering group, children and young people and partners. The initial draft statement will be sent to the Children’s Services Leadership Team to keep them informed on progress and to contribute to the statement which will be revised before being published by 1 October 2011.

What is Learning to Change?

There is a Learning to Change - parent participation model in Cumbria and they cover the whole county across a wide age and disability range of children and young people.

Learning to Change is a parent led group who meet on a regular basis with representation from each of the local parent forums. They want to work as equal partners in this process and have lots of local knowledge and experience about what works for their disabled children and themselves in their area, they also fulfil the governments desire to use the money available as effectively as possible, only commission providers/services that families will use and get benefit from.

Parents and disabled children and young people are invited to contribute to the statement by contacting the Learning to Change parent group administrator via email at learningtochange@googlemail.com. They will be running a number of events to consult and review the statement on an ongoing basis throughout the year.

Children’s Services also have a nominated representative on the Learning to Change group - Joanne King.  Joanne.King@cumbria.gov.uk T:01228 226939

You can also contact your Parent Partnership Co-ordinator through the Children’s Services Parent Partnership Service

Karen Hull  -Barrow and South Lakeland Karen.Hull@cumbria.gov.uk

Celia Jones –Barrow and South Lakeland Celia.Jones@cumbria.gov.uk

Phyllis Bowler –Allerdale and Copeland Phyllis.Bowler@cumbria.gov.uk

Janette Baines – Allerdale and Copeland Janette.Baines@cumbria.gov.uk

Gwen Hawley –Carlisle and Eden Gwen.Hawley@cumbria.gov.uk

Emma Penketh –Carlisle and Eden Emma.Penketh@cumbria.gov.uk

What is the Shortbreaks statement for?

The statement links to our Children’s Services Directorate Service Plan 2011-2012 and will provide the basis through which our commissioning plans for short break services are delivered. This will ensure that we provide the range of short breaks that families need and value. We will continue to fully involve parents and carers and children and young people in this process to ensure that we continually provide what families need and help us to decide what we change and what we keep.

The aim of the Service Plan is to ensure a much greater focus on prevention and support to parents when it is first required and prevent crises.

Publication and Review

We will ensure that our Short breaks service statement is published on the www.cumbria.gov.uk local authority website. We will also widely distribute it to parents and carers through parent forums, support groups and partners in education, health and social care.

The statement will be reviewed over the first 3-6 months as an emerging document in partnership with our parents’ forums and stakeholder groups and with the Learning to Change group to ensure that it is up to date and reflects the views and choices of local families. We will use the on-going consultations and surveys to make changes and improvements and to ensure that our short breaks continue to reflect the needs of different families living in Cumbria who have disabled children.

• As we know more about evolving activities we will build them into the plan with the support of parents and other stakeholders (this includes taking into account the fact that Cumbria is a large rural county and issues of rurality need to be considered).

• We will be working with a wide range of partners like the NHS, youth services, Active Cumbria and so forth to inform the delivery of the service.

Below is an outline of how the services will be designed to meet the needs of parents, carers, children and young people:

• Contract monitoring: The County Councils Children's Services Contract Management Team will lead on the monitoring of the short breaks contracts on a quarterly basis in partnership with other CCC officers.  This will ensure that service delivery is meeting the needs of children and young people with disabilities and will take into account the views of parents, carers, children and young people in the planning and development of service provision.  We will also monitor the impact of service delivery on children, young people, their families and/or carers and the local community.
• Commissioning- involvement in process 
• Consulting –we will consult throughout the lifetime of the statement
• Training opportunities will be explored with Children’s Services workforce development team
• Publicity –the Local Authority will work in partnership with the Learning to Change Group and short breaks providers to ensure effective marketing and publicity of the provision.
• Mapping provision and identifying gaps

FEEDBACK - some of the questions and issues

• Where are the gaps in information? Feedback so far suggests that it’s ‘who you know’ that determines whether or not you get good information about what short breaks are available.
• Do families want to see a distinction between short breaks which are primarily a social activity for the child and those which are a break for the carer?
• Anything else we are missing?

What have we done so far:

What happens next?

A snapshot from parents on better ways forward

“We need information on how money has been spent and how future monies are going to be used.”

Respite centre grounds are not accessible to all children and we need better communication on the adaptions required.”

“Sharing information –it is sometimes sporadic. Not all parents of disabled children get the information on what is available.”

Cumbria Eligibility Criteria

These services include short breaks, personal care support, aids and adaptations to homes, support with parenting or family issues, and help to liaise with other agencies, but not education services.

Is your child eligible to receive a service from Children’s Services?

Disabled children are considered ‘children in need’ under the 1989 Children Act and are entitled to an initial assessment from Children’s services.

However, most disabled children and their families should be able to have their needs met without requiring a social care assessment.

An eligibility framework is used to help parents and carers, and practitioners evaluate and understand what support may be appropriate.

This helps us to ensure that those in the greatest need and at the highest risk receive services and that everyone who requests a service is dealt with fairly.

How does this work?

• If a parent feels that they cannot meet theirs or their child’s needs with the current support available to them, they can ask one of the practitioners involved with them for a Common Assessment, or, if their child is under 5, for an Early Support Family Service Plan.
• This simple assessment will help you and all those working with you to think about what your needs are, where you need to get to, and what services or actions are needed to get there.
• If this assessment identifies needs that cannot be met with the resources available, a referral can be made to Children’s Services.

What happens then?

When you are referred, or if you refer yourself, to Children’s Services, you will be offered an initial assessment.

We use a national framework, used for all children, to complete this and things we will consider are:

• Are parents/ carers having difficulties in caring for their child?
• Does the child have severe or complex disabilities?
• Does the care of the disabled child have a significant impact on their siblings?
• Are there a number of other agencies or services involved?
• Are there any concerns about safety, health or development?
• How serious are any of these issues?
• Is the environment the child is living in causing severe difficulties?
• Does the parent have any needs of their own, as a carer of a disabled child?

• Activities your child is already accessing
• Services already being provided and why
• What extended family support is available
• Any additional needs – such as rurality or ethnic background
• The information provided by other agencies

Eligibility Framework- more detailed guidance is here

During the initial assessment, the eligibility framework (which consists of 4 levels of eligibility) will be used to decide what level of support could be offered to meet the current needs.

The levels of needs and support available to meet them are:

• Universal – these are services that all children should be able to use, sometimes with additional support.
• Targeted – these are services that are set up especially for vulnerable or disabled children and may include parenting support, and group activities.
• Specialist – children who will need specialist services designed for their particular needs and funded by Children’s Services and/or health.

If the identified needs fall within the first three levels – you will be offered information about other services that might be able to support you, or activities that your child may be able to access, or advice and guidance on any concerns you may have.

Children’s Services may provide a short term service to support you but is unlikely to provide a long term service.

If the identified needs fall within level 4 of the framework, a more detailed assessment may be carried out. The worker undertaking this assessment will gather further information from all agencies and will meet with you and your child.

The worker will then draw up a care plan with you that will identify what the outcomes of any service should be, which services will be provided, how long for, and what they should achieve in that time.

The care plan will be reviewed at least every 6 months.

What happens if my needs or those of my child change?

We recognise that children’s needs can change as they develop and that family’s needs change over time. This may lead to an improvement in your situation or a deterioration.  If your circumstances change, you can ask your involved case workers for a review of your child’s assessment or of the care plan.  If you are already receiving a service, the regular review should take account of these changes and the care plan should change accordingly.

Service Delivery in Cumbria

Cumbria Elements

In Cumbria 3 elements have been commissioned for the period Oct 2011 - Jan 2012.  These are;

Element 1; Specialist group holiday and weekend activities for children aged 8-13 who have severe and complex needs. 

Element 2; Specialist age appropriate group activities – holidays, weekend and after school/evening for young people aged 14-19 with severe and complex needs. 

Element 3; Sitting service/support to access community activities, up to 4 hours a week for children and young people aged 0-8 with severe learning difficulties and/or autism and challenging behaviour, with profound and multiple disabilities or with or with complex physical disabilities.  

Additional provision

Children’s Centres have been commissioned to deliver Short breaks for 0-8 year old disabled children and their siblings, this is included in their 3 year contract from August 2011 - 2014

Countywide group activities through Action for Blind People from Oct 2011- Jan 2012

Future provision priorities:

• Cumbria will be going out to tender for Short break provision from February 2012 for a 14 month period.
• Re-evaluation of contract carers who provide specialist overnight short breaks for disabled children and their families.
• Supporting Cumbria residential overnight short break homes to increase their capacity for young people with complex disabilities to access this facility.
• Extending the scope of registered childminders to enable them to care for older disabled children.
• Ensuring young people’s transition needs are considered in the delivery of services.