Short breaks programme - Latest news
Come to our parents and young people's engagement day at The Michael Tippett School on 14 November 2009
Government announces funding allocations
The transformation of short break services for disabled children and young people came a step closer with the announcement that Lambeth has met all 9 government short break readiness criteria. This means that the government will now release significant new Aiming High for Disabled Children funding.
John Sloan, the short breaks transformation programme manager, said: "over the last six months we have been working very hard to realise this opportunity. Now we have the money to radically transform short break services for our young disabled population".
The Government has stipulated that the significant investment being made in short breaks results in changes that not only transform the volume of provision available, but also transforms the quality, appropriateness, range and capacity of provision to meet the needs of those children who are commonly unable to access provision (namely children and young people with complex medical/moving and handling needs or ASD/Challenging behaviour).
Short Breaks providers conference
Over 30 short breaks providers met at the Lambeth YMCA on 13 February 2009 to discuss and explore how best they can provide more challenging and creative services for disabled children and young people.
The Government has placed short breaks at the centre of the Aiming High for Disabled Children agenda. A total funding package of £370 million has been allocated by the Department for Children, Schools and Families for 2008-11 for short breaks.
Local authorities and PCTs are expected to have undertaken a rigorous process of identifying the requirements of disabled children for short breaks.
John Sloan, the joint Lambeth and Primary Care Trust Short Breaks Transformation Programme Manager, said: "Children and young people have told us that they want more challenging, creative and flexible short breaks so today's conference provided the perfect opportunity to discuss with existing and potential providers the types of short breaks we will be commissioning now and in the future based on the feedback received".
"Our aim is to work in partnership with the best short breaks providers who offer a combination of skills and experiences and who deliver services of the highest possible quality to meet the needs of our young disabled population in Lambeth".
The conference also enabled providers to talk about their training needs in relation to disability awareness, child resuscitation and moving and handling, first aid and the management of children with multiple complex health needs.
Ringing the bell for short breaks
Over 100 parents, children and young people as well as Local Authority officers, attended the award-winning Michael Tippett School on 15 November 2008 to take part in Lambeth's Aiming High for Disabled Children engagement day.
The Aiming High for Disabled Children strategy was launched by the government to help improve outcomes for children with severe and complex needs. Since the beginning of 2008, new measures have been introduced by the government to support the strategy and help organisations develop their services over the next three years.
The engagement day provided an opportunity for parents, children and young people to tell the Local authority and Primary Care Trust (PCT) about how they want the service to be developed, what they want from short breaks and how they want new government short breaks money to be spent.
Our Progress to date
We have an Aiming High for disabled children Programme Manager who will work across the local authority and PCT to co-ordinate the short break transformation programme.
We are beginning to talk to service providers about ways they could extend or improve their services. We want to hear from any organisation with an idea or plan to provide short break services in Lambeth.
We are looking at ways on how best short break services can be delivered in full consultation and partnership between parent carers, children and young people and service providers.
We will take steps to improve universal access through building adaptations and timely provision of equipment
We are further developing parent forums.
Improving health outcomes
We are exploring ways of delivering a short breaks service which better improves the health, well being and experience of services for our young disabled population. In addition, we recognise that parent carers also require short breaks and we will seek to explore with stakeholders over the coming months how best their needs can be met.
We are looking again at eligibility criteria for short breaks and making sure that the eligibility criteria is transparent and fair.