What are Short Breaks?
Short Breaks provide social opportunities for children and young people with a severe disability to spend time away from their parents or primary carers. They provide an essential opportunity for parents and carers to have a break, and allow disabled children and young people to have different experiences - places, people and activities.
It is our aim that Short Breaks will contribute to keeping disabled children safe and healthy, enabling them to enjoy new activities, make friends, and have new learning opportunities, as well as preparing teenagers for adulthood.
By providing disabled children and young people with such opportunities, it is our aim to support parents in their role as primary carers and give them breaks to assist them to look after themselves and their wider family.
Who is eligible?
The children with disabilities team is a specialist disability team who work with children with complex SEND and health needs.
Children and Young People must be 17 years and under who are residing in Bury.
We work with Children and Young People and their families when a child or young person has one or more of the following:
- A permanent and substantial disability, which may be physical, learning, sensory and communication
- A chronic life limiting illness; i.e a child’s physical health serious and deteriorating
- Life threatening or terminal illness
How do I make a referral?
Parents and professionals will need to make a referral to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). However, please note that we do not work with all children with disabilities, so when a referral is received, practitioners in MASH will consult with you to determine the level of need using Bury’s Continuum of Need threshold document. At this point they may provide you with further information and advice and signpost to you to other services.
How do I access Short Breaks' services?
After consultation with MASH, it will be determined which service is most suitable to meet the needs of your child. For example, support under Level 3 is via the Team around the Family process. Level 4 would be a child that has a substantial disability, or who's health is likely to be impaired without provision of services would be allocated a social worker to undertake a Children and Families a Assessment; with the view to co-ordinate services through the Child in Need Plan.
Access to a support is then through agreement of the Children with Disabilities Resource Panel of the support required to meet the assessed needs of your child and family. This Panel meets every fortnight and considers all assessments and requests for short breaks, and then will confirm the decision to you in writing.
Within the assessment process the Social Worker will explore the types of short breaks available ahead of making their recommendations to Panel.
The short breaks offered might include the following:
- A Direct Payment to employ a Personal Assistant to take the child or young person out, or helping in the home (refer to the guide in the downloads area below).
- The child or young person spending time at a specialist social opportunity group.
There are a range of short breaks, which you may be able to access depending on the assessed needs of your child.
Short Breaks duty statement
The Short Breaks Regulations requires the Council to produce a short breaks services statement so that families know what services are available, the eligibility criteria for these services, and how the range of short breaks is designed to meet the local needs of families with disabled children.
The Short Breaks duty statement is available in the downloads area below.