Respite care and short breaks

Our vision is that all children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities in County Durham are an important part of their local communities and that these are inclusive.

Whilst children and young people are taking part in out of school activities, this allows a short and natural break for you to catch up with everyday activities, time for you to look after you physical and mental health wellbeing, and maintain and develop your social networks.

Your child/young person can benefit from the development of new interests, keeping fit, socialising with new friends and taking part in hobbies.

Some families are telling us that they feel overwhelmed with information and don't always know what is going on which could be of interest to their family and others are telling us that their family needs a personalised solution suitable to their needs.

In response to this feedback from families we have now created a Short Breaks Solutions telephone line and email. If you feel you are in need of a short break from your caring role but unsure how to get one whilst within the family home environment, or outdoors within the guidelines - please contact Short Breaks Solutions by phoning the telephone or email address below, If nobody is available to answer please leave your name and contact number on the Short Breaks voicemail.

• Telephone: 03000 260 270
• Email: shortbreakssolutions@durham.gov.uk

We can work together to co-ordinate a creative response for your family. The frequency, duration and timing of short breaks can vary considerably; from a child attending a virtual activity, leisure facility for a few hours per week through to a child spending time with a 1:1 community enabler. There is a small percentage of children whose needs are assessed by panel for the child to sleep at a children's residential setting overnight to secure a break for parent/carers.

The short break offer will be kept under review and updated in line with the guidance and needs of families. Please continue to share your views either by using the contact details above or completing the Carer short breaks survey.

For those families who have a social worker and are in receipt of outreach services or overnight respite., you can continue to link with your social worker in relation to these services where you feel you need more enhanced support than the short break solutions in the home. Your social worker will work with you on understanding the needs of your family during this time.

The Short Breaks Solutions Officer helps families in exploring universal community activities and the local offer for the first time. They will work with you to understand barriers that you are experiencing accessing your local community. If you are unable to access what is on within the local offer to meet your needs, then the council and our Health partners fund a number of providers to deliver an "Inclusive Community Short Breaks Offer". These providers have additional training and expertise to support children and young people with a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities. You can be referred to one of these providers without an assessment. The range of services delivered by these providers is included below.

Inclusive Community Short Breaks

Direct delivery of group activities has been suspended due to Covid-19. However, providers have engaged with families to develop a range of innovative alternative solutions to support families during this time. Our four strands include:

Virtual activities

There is a range of online activities including gaming, cookery, fitness, bingo and discos. The current theme is Easter. Some of these activities can be done online individually and others as part of an online group.

Keeping families connected

One of our providers provides regular activity packs to families, these packs are delivered every few weeks with a different theme. The current theme is Easter and the packs can be linked to online activities or do on your own. They also host a family book club and forthcoming online youth club.

Physical activity group programmes

Our provider is currently unable to provide face to face sessions, but they are providing online sessions. These include physical sessions, games and other fun activities.

Community enabler

A community enabler can provide a five-week programme of 1:1 support. This service is only available to extremely anxious children and young people who cannot manage in a group situation or get out of their home without 1:1 support. This is followed by five weeks of online activities.

Some of our current providers include:

• Integrating Children
• Durham Area Disability Leisure Group (DADLG) 
• Sport Works 
• Include 'In' Autism

There may be some families who require some additional support more than what can be offered from the Inclusive Communities Short Break providers. For example, your child might need a more specialist level of support, longer duration of session, or a different type of service.

For these families, Durham County Carers can work to understand your needs as a parent/carer. It may be that a referral is required to the First Contact Service for a social care worker to work with you and your family to understand your social care needs and complete a full assessment.

The assessment may indicate that you require some specialist short breaks to be provided for your family. The assessment will advise what level of specialist short breaks will be required. You may receive these services through a direct payment or specialist commissioned service. The social care worker must take the full assessment to a funding panel which is made up of social care staff, education staff and health staff to approve funding to support the assessment and needs of your family. Funding could be approved or an alternative solution recommended.

• Direct Payment - it may be agreed that the funding for support will be personalised and allow your family to employ their own support worker through a direct payment.
• Specialist Short Breaks - the council would search for a specialist short break provider to deliver the service for your family. These services include:
  • Domiciliary Care - personal home care support into your family home.
  • Community Outreach Support - where a specialist outreach support worker would allow your child/young person to access the community with support.
  • Community Group Activities - this could include after school or weekend groups with specialist support.
  • Over-night respite care - where your child would stay in a residential setting.
  • Hospice care - where your child/young person would stay in hospice care.

Durham County Carers Support

Durham County Carers Support can offer support if you care for a child with additional needs in an unpaid capacity. They can help, advise and support you if you are finding your caring role very stressful and are struggling to manage. Help guide you with welfare benefits or provide some ongoing support. Depending on your circumstances they may be able to support you to access a carer break or grant, and issue you with a Carer Friendly Discount Card. Telephone 0300 005 1213, email admin@dccarers.org.

Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

Durham Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Information Advice and Support Service will be able to provide you and your family with the correct information in relation to what is available for parent/carer support, financial support, emotional wellbeing, support to obtain food for your family, up to date guidance for your children returning to education etc. Telephone 0191 5873541 or 03000 267007.