Providing respite for children with special needs

[CailinDana]

I used to teach children with special needs and I absolutely loved it. I'm now at home full time with my DS and I'd like to look into providing respite/babysitting for parents with children with SN but I'm not sure how to go about it. Are there schemes run where a carer will take a child into their own home for a day/weekend/week? Or is respite usually provided by residential homes? Any information on this would be really helpful.

CailinDana it is a lovely thought. I am sorry I have no really helpful advice though. The respite I get it's provided by a lady that comes to my house for 10 hours a week through the "Direct Payment" scheme.

As the children get older, I will be needing some residential respite though I think.

Try ringing your local Social Services, or the Council. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply Change. Do you know who organises the lady who comes to you?

What age are your children change? What sort of disabilities do they have?

It was organised through the 'Children with Disabilities' team that we have here. We were referred to them years ago, so there was a Children with Disabilties worker (I am sure she has a proper title, I just don't know it), and a Social Worker assigned to my family.

They came out to assess my needs. Then I had to interview people for the Carers job, but they helped me with the interviews. They also manage the account for me so all I have to do is send in what hours my carer has worked each month. They do all the financial stuff. They call it a 'managed account'. i.e. I don't have to pay her, they do...the Council I think.

Sorry to be vague. It's an arrangement that has been going on for years and it's all been a bit of a blur to be honest.

I will PM you the other information.

Thanks Change :)

Hi, what a lovely thing you are wanting to do.
Would it be day respite you were wanting to do?
My ds2 has respite though "shared care" which is he goes to a foster family for 6 hours once a week.
The family are lovely and do this for a few families. They are registered foster carers but have only ever done he day foster caring with children with SN rather than having a specific child live with em.

Would be worth contacting your LA fostering department and asking them if this is something they do.

Yes, that's the sort of thing I was thinking 5. My DS is at an age where he is quite easy to manage and I think he would love to have another child around.

Thanks for that information, I'll have a look into the fostering option.

I have friends who do this through Action For Children - they respite foster 2 children with ASD and other issues.

Hi Cailin. I'm sure there will be someone in your area who will snap your hands off at such an offer and especially with your experience.
I think provision is different in each area - so it depends on where you live. Your best point of contact may be your local Disabled Childrens Team (part of the Local Authority), who be familiar with who the 'Short Breaks' providers are in your area. Where I live some of this provision is from Barnardos and other from Action for Children,(depending on if it is a few hours or overnight) but you may wish to have a private arrangement and be 'employed' for a few hours a week by a family who get Direct Payments - in which case possibly advertising through a local special school.

My sons respite is provided through the local DCT. As a starting point you could contact your DCT.

I get emails from my local NAS branch advertising the type of services your describing. With the increasing use & move to Direct Payments where parents are responsible for the budget and services they use, there no need to include DCT/ SS. Ie parents are technically the employer so CBT/N.I/Tax are the parents responsibility.

I think you will have no problem finding people to use your service!

Our local authority does this, and other local boroughs afaik, and its called Family Link

Hiya, yes there are loads of schemes :) check out www.shortbreaksnetwork.org.uk/ which has loads of info on the different roles available and links to local schemes, or send me a message and we can have a chat (I have been a short break carer for 5 years and love it!)

Thanks everyone for the information. There seem to be quite a few ways to go about it, so I'll start looking into it.

I would ditto suggest contacting Disabled Childrens Team / Fostering team at Council
But there are also likely to be private care agencies who would take you on their books - parents would then be referred to the agency by Disabled Childrens Team or direct using direct payments.
We use an agency which is a recommended supplier for social services, but we deal and pay the agency direct.
Our Carers Resource (local carers charity) also runs a SN sitting service, so if you have similar organisations locally they may be interested in having you on their list of approved sitters.