"Historical moment" - Local authorities have new duty to provide short breaks to families with disabled children

[ShinyHappyChickensLayingEggs]

here - have a read
A step in the right direction. Well by 2010 anyway..

now all they have to do is put their money where their mouth is

Indeed.

As an aside, I would like to plant my boot into the mouths of the respite panel. One at a time.

Wow! Theres hope yet!
We had a short breaks questionare recently - perhaps we all did?. It includes all nonschool time away from home, eg afterschool clubs (not any for special schools here), beavers, saturday and holiday schemes etc.

well done 2 shoes, you spotted the fly in the ointment....

Expect to see numerous "co- ordinator" posts in the local paper. Then look in vain for the adverts recruiting foster families or residential social workers for the new unit.

I am a bit worried by the short breaks rather than respite title. Whilst an hour a week at beavers is lovely, (and there should be more provision for less able children to enjoy clubs etc,) the need for carer/parent for respite (sleep!) should be a priority!

Oh - I took "short breaks" to mean something more than respite (which, in our case means 6 hours of daycare 2 - 6 times a month) - as in a couple of days or more.

Was that v.foolish of me?

I was even envisaging the other 4 of us to maybe even plan a short holiday some time in the future, as those are something we have now given up on as it's just too downright miserable with DS. I though if he was off enjoying himself on his break, then we could have one too...

oh that's good. I wonder where dps will fit in with that. theoretically they provide us with short breaks but they don't because it's so hard to find someone who can have ds1.

They shut the local respite centre that used to provide this sort of service

I meant 2 - 3 times a month, not 6! I wish!

They just shut it down with no replacement Yurt?

yep. And scope shut another. So the city now has nothing.

This must be connected to a big exercise that has been going on in my borough. Someone VERY senior came to talk to parents about how they would like to see "short breaks" delivered (lots of choices and flexibility basically). She told us that there is £££££ for this provision across the country and that my borough will be setting up flexible residential respite as well as other options, wahey!