Respite/short breaks

[raspberrytart]

Hi
How many hours a week do you get?
we have until recently got 4 a week, they came to collect and dropped off 4 hours later. Absolutely fantastic and consistent support workers.No problems

Now they are asking for us to drop off and collect at new resource centre 20 miles away.
Also, if I ask them to collect then their travelling time is taken out of the 4 hrs , so realistically only 2 hrs respite for ds and he will know that its not the 4hrs he is used to.
They have more children to support now so surely they will be getting more for those children? It is a charity but has shareholders.

Has anyone been in the same situation by having a full 4 hrs then this being reduced due to 'funding cuts'?
It doesnt make sense to me.
Thanks for reading

Well. Short breaks is a very very complex area, and it's dealt with differently by different councils. So it depends on what is happening near you. But Short breaks used to come out of Aiming High funding which was ringfenced. Now it comes out of a different budget which is not ringfenced and though councils have by and large tried to keep services at the same level, huge cuts in other areas mean they have done a lot of reorganising to try to make the same money go further. And yes, that may mean telling eg a charity they are funding that they will fund them for more places but at a lower cost per child by consolidating into one location. On paper it means better value for money, but the children living furthest away from the new location will suffer.

The problem is not, imo, the charity. The problem is the council. You need to go back to Social Services and say that the change has meant a significant cut in your child's provision and they need to go back to panel. This may mean asking for an increase in funds, or it may mean that you get your respite changed. So they may tell you you can have 4 hours' effective respite but from council workers not this charity, or from another facility run by another charity in another location nearer to home. In that case, I think you would probably have to take it; it's hard to show that the quality of service isn't good enough, especially if you've never tried it!

Thanks very much for your reply r3.
We currently don't have a social worker but might go down that route.
Its such a shame and not fair that we live in a rural area and the nearest town is over 12 miles away